Working Class Formation in Turkey, 1946-1962: Work, Culture, and the Politics of the Everyday

The political identities of the Turkish working class began a transformative journey that started during a period of industrialization following World War II and continued until the military interventions of 1960. Working Class Formation in Turkey addresses common, structural generalizations to recover the complex history of developing political, recreational, familial, residential, and work-related lives of Turkish workers. Drawing on a wide range of historical sources, this volume brings the concept of “everydayness” to the fore and uncovers the local contexts that fostered class solidarity, examines labor practices that fueled radicalism, and analyzes the shifting dynamics of industrial discipline that impacted working class identity and culture.

Barış Alp Özden is a visiting scholar at the Institute of Turkish Studies at Duisburg-Essen University. He earned his PhD in Turkish History from the Atatürk Institute at Boğaziçi University with a strong inter-disciplinary orientation. He additionally served as the chief editor of the monthly magazine Toplumsal Tarih (Social History) between 2018 and 2020.