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DOI :10.26650/JECS2019-0069   IUP :10.26650/JECS2019-0069    Full Text (PDF)

Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences

Ayça Yılmaz Deniz

This article deals with social mobility through the work experiences of employees, self-employed or freelance workers and unemployed people who have organized themselves on certain platforms to discuss their experiences, expectations and problems at work. The main thesis of the article is the social mobility expectations of these individuals that correlate with their subjectification and desubjectification experiences in the working life. In this context, the article examines the managerial company model and the new management strategies. This model and company discourse, based on the subjectivity of the employee, constitute an important part of the socialization processes of individuals. In this sense, company’s and society’s promise of subjectification at work has been a measure of social mobility for individuals. The findings of objective social mobility do not coincide with the experiences of individuals, for the work is not experienced as subjectification as promised by the managerial company model. Those who experience upward social mobility and those who reproduce their fathers’ positions perceive themselves as having experienced downward mobility or loss of social class. In this context, this article develops a discussion on the subjective dimensions of social mobility. Accordingly, when social mobility is evaluated only on objective criteria, it is revealed that the result does not coincide with the experiences of individuals. In social mobility researches, it is highly important to consider subjectivities and lived experiences to understand the social reality of Turkey.

Keywords: Subjective social mobility, managerial company model, subjectification, white-collar organizations
DOI :10.26650/JECS2019-0069   IUP :10.26650/JECS2019-0069    Full Text (PDF)

Yaşanmış Deneyimler ve Öznellikler Çerçevesinde Tabakalaşmayı Okumak

Ayça Yılmaz Deniz

Bu makale Türkiye’de çalışma hayatına dair deneyimler, beklentiler ve sorunlar çerçevesinde, belirli platformlar etrafında bir araya gelmiş ücretli, kendi hesabına ya da freelance çalışanların ve işsizlerin çalışma deneyimleri üzerinden bir toplumsal hareketlilik okuması yapmaktadır. Makalenin temel savı, söz konusu bireylerin toplumsal hareketlilikle ilgili öncelikli beklentisinin çalışma hayatında özneleşme/özneleşememe deneyimleriyle ilişkili olduğudur. Makale, bu bağlamda, yönetimsel şirket modelini ve yeni yönetim stratejilerini incelemektedir. Çalışanın öznelliğine vurgu yapan bu model ve şirket söylemi, bireylerin sosyalleşme süreçlerinin önemli bir parçasını oluşturmaktadır. Bu anlamda, şirketin ve dolayısıyla toplumun özneleşme vaadi, bireyler için toplumsal hareketliliğin bir ölçütü olmuştur. Ancak çalışma, söz konusu bireyler tarafından yönetimsel şirket modelinin vadettiği gibi bir özneleşme olarak deneyimlenmediği için, nesnel toplumsal hareketliliğe dair bulgular, bireylerin deneyimleriyle örtüşmemektedir. Yukarı yönlü toplumsal hareketlilik yaşayanlarla, babalarının konumlarını yeniden üretenler, kendilerini aşağı yönlü hareketlilik ya da sınıf kaybı yaşamış olarak algılamaktadır. Bu bağlamda makale, toplumsal hareketliliğin öznel boyutları üzerine bir tartışma geliştirmektedir. Buna göre toplumsal hareketlilik yalnızca nesnel ölçütler üzerinden değerlendirildiğinde, sonucun bireylerin yaşanmış deneyimleriyle örtüşmediği ortaya çıkmıştır. Toplumsal hareketlilik araştırmalarında öznelliklerin ve yaşanmış deneyimlerin dikkate alınması, özellikle Türkiye’nin toplumsal gerçekliğini anlamada son derece önemlidir.

Keywords: Öznel toplumsal hareketlilik, yönetimsel şirket modeli, özneleşme, beyaz yaka örgütlenmeleri

EXTENDED ABSTRACT


This article aims to discuss some findings about social mobility of my doctoral thesis on white-collar organizations in Turkey -as I call them- such as Plaza Eylem Platformu (Plaza Action Platform), Kaç Bize Gel (Run Away and Come to Us) and Beyaz Yakalı İşçiler (White Collar Workers). The title of my thesis is “Emergence of white-collar subject in Turkish society: lived experiences, reasons to act, world views” (originally entitled “Émergence du sujet cols blancs dans la société turque: expériences vécues, raisons d’agir, visions du monde”).

My research focuses, firstly, on how a small group of paid, unpaid workers (self-employed and freelance workers) and unemployed people come together through different platforms as social networks and construct themselves as white-collar. Secondly, I analyze their self-subjectification processes. In this article, I will present the fundamental findings of my research about work experiences and then discuss them by comparing with some secondary findings about social mobility. 

I conducted in-depth interviews with 30 (17 women and 13 men) people in addition to applying other techniques such as observation of the activities and content analyses of blogs and social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) that the three platforms I mentioned above manage. 

In this context, the first aim of the article is to discuss how the discourse of subjectivity created by managerial company culture (Spurk, 1997) coincides with the expectations of upward social mobility of these paid/unpaid workers and unemployed people and their parents. To analyze the relation between the discourse of subjectivity and the expectations, I will focus on working experiences. My purpose is to find out whether the upward social mobility is fulfilled. 

My research firstly reveals that the work is not experienced as subjectivation and autonomy as promised by managerial discourse, but on the contrary it is experienced as desubjectification. Secondly, it emphasizes how the working experiences overturn the expectations of upward social mobility and also how the findings about objective social mobility are not compatible with subjective experiences. In contrast to the objective indicators, it emphasizes how a working experience as desubjectification is experienced as a downward social mobility and even loss of social class.

Working experience as desubjectification is characterized by two opposing processes. On the one hand, work is experienced as objectification, i.e., alienation, as a result of company organizations based on fordist production model. On the other hand, it is experienced as instrumentalisation of worker’s subjectivity as a result of managerial strategies (based on post-fordist production model) which mobilize employees’ subjectivity in accordance with the company interests. 

When analyzed according to objective criteria, it was revealed that some individuals experienced upward social mobility or they reproduced their father’s class positions and a very small number of people experienced downward social mobility. However, most of the experiences of individuals do not comply with this scheme. It has been experienced by many interviewees as downward social mobility and even class loss. 

This research shows that subjective social mobility, which is based on individual’s lived experiences, goals, imaginations, motivations and on how they interpret the world around them is highly important to consider in social mobility researches, especially to understand the reasons behind the acts of individuals. It is important because these reasons play a role to form the social structure of the Turkish society and help us to understand clearly the social reality. 

In this research, I examined work experiences of this specific group and analyzed social mobility by comparing their expectations about working life and their lived experiences at work. To reveal some criteria of subjective social mobility, these finding can be compared by a new wider study which focuses directly on social mobility experiences of this paid, unpaid workers and unemployed people.


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APA

Yılmaz Deniz, A. (2020). Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences. Journal of Economy Culture and Society, 0(1), 79-94. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069


AMA

Yılmaz Deniz A. Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences. Journal of Economy Culture and Society. 2020;0(1):79-94. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069


ABNT

Yılmaz Deniz, A. Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences. Journal of Economy Culture and Society, [Publisher Location], v. 0, n. 1, p. 79-94, 2020.


Chicago: Author-Date Style

Yılmaz Deniz, Ayça,. 2020. “Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences.” Journal of Economy Culture and Society 0, no. 1: 79-94. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069


Chicago: Humanities Style

Yılmaz Deniz, Ayça,. “Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences.” Journal of Economy Culture and Society 0, no. 1 (Dec. 2024): 79-94. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069


Harvard: Australian Style

Yılmaz Deniz, A 2020, 'Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences', Journal of Economy Culture and Society, vol. 0, no. 1, pp. 79-94, viewed 27 Dec. 2024, https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069


Harvard: Author-Date Style

Yılmaz Deniz, A. (2020) ‘Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences’, Journal of Economy Culture and Society, 0(1), pp. 79-94. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069 (27 Dec. 2024).


MLA

Yılmaz Deniz, Ayça,. “Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences.” Journal of Economy Culture and Society, vol. 0, no. 1, 2020, pp. 79-94. [Database Container], https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069


Vancouver

Yılmaz Deniz A. Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences. Journal of Economy Culture and Society [Internet]. 27 Dec. 2024 [cited 27 Dec. 2024];0(1):79-94. Available from: https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069 doi: 10.26650/JECS2019-0069


ISNAD

Yılmaz Deniz, Ayça. “Reading Stratification in the Framework of Subjectivities and Lived Experiences”. Journal of Economy Culture and Society 0/1 (Dec. 2024): 79-94. https://doi.org/10.26650/JECS2019-0069



TIMELINE


Submitted09.09.2019
Accepted17.03.2020
Published Online11.09.2020

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