Düşünümsel Modernitede Mahremiyeti Yeniden Tanımlamak: Kuşaklararası Bir Araştırma
Bu çalışmanın konusunu lineer tarihsel bağlamda mahremiyet olgusunun birey ve toplum odağında geçirdiği evreler oluşturmaktadır. Kuramsal açıdan bu evreler, çalışmada modernite perspektifinden değerlendirilmiştir. Enformasyon toplumunun gelişimiyle modernlik düşünümsel bir boyuta doğru evrilmiştir. Söz konusu evrim de toplumsaldaki birçok katmanı değiştirmiştir. Bu değişim başta birey olmak üzere kamusal alan ve özel alanı da etkilemiş, sınırları dönüşmüştür. Düşünümsel modernite ile birlikte yeni iletişim teknolojilerinin kullanımı bireyler ve coğrafyalar arasındaki sınırları kaldırmış, paylaşım ve haberleşme küresel bir boyut kazanmıştır. Bu süreçte gözetim olgusunun öne çıkışı, sosyal paylaşım platformlarının yaygınlaşması mahremiyet olgusunu yeniden şekillendirmiş ve kendi içinde dönüştürmüştür. Günümüz enformasyon toplumunda mahremiyet kişiden kişiye göre değişmiş, kuşaklararası farklı anlam bütünlüklerine sahip olmuştur. Mahremiyet, toplumsal değişimler, medya kullanımı, küresel göstergeler, din, gözetim ve risk toplumu gibi kavramlar ekseninde farklı kuşaklarda farklı anlamlar bulan bir olgu haline gelmiştir. Bu çalışmada tasarlanan araştırma, mahremiyetin dönüşüm niteliklerini ortaya koymak ve bu nitelikleri anlamak adına, fenomenolojik yaklaşımla üç ayrı kuşağı temsil eden kadın ve erkeklerle gerçekleştirilmiştir. Üç kuşağı temsil eden kadın ve erkeklerle yapılan görüşmeler, mahremiyeti işaret eden olgula-rın kuşaklararasında kimi zaman benzerlik gösterdiğini, kimi zaman da farklı noktalarda durduklarını, dolayısıyla da mahremiyetin kesin ve belirgin sınırlarla tanımlanamayacağını ortaya koymuştur.
Redefining Privacy in Reflexive Modernity: An Intergenerational Research
This study focuses on the historical changes in the concept of privacy—both at the level of the individual and at the level of society. These changes have been evaluated in relation to the question of modernity. With the advent of information socie-ty, modernity developed a dimension of thoughtfulness. In other words, evolution has changed many layers of society. This change has affected the public and the private space, especially at the level of the individual. The borders between the public and the private have been transformed. Along with reflexive modernity, the use of new communication technologies has shifted the boundaries between individuals and geographies. As a result, and sharing and communication have gained a global dimension. In this process, the emergence of surveillance and the spread of social-sharing platforms has reshaped and transformed the phenomenon of privacy. In today’s information society, privacy is conceived differently by different peo-ple. People’s conceptions are also influenced by inherited meanings. In addition, the following aspects related to privacy are also conceived differently: social changes, media use, global indicators, religion, surveillance, and risk society. The research adopts a phenomenological approach. It involved interviews with women and men from three distinct generations. The interviews showed that some of the aspects related to privacy have been conceived similarly across generations, whereas some aspects have been conceived differently. As a result, the question of confidentiality cannot be defined in a clear and definite manner.
This paper contains some parts of the doctoral thesis entitled “Transformation of Privacy Within the Context of Reflexive Modernity: Intergeneration Differences from The Media Perspective,” which was completed in 2016. These parts also represent the distinct, yet interrelated, concerns of the thesis, namely the phenomenon of privacy; the three different generations experiencing changing natural and short-run historical processes in the historical process of thought-modernity; and facts, concepts, and situations directly and indirectly related to the question of privacy. In addition, it argues that modernity determines the extent to which the question of privacy can be discussed effectively. In its broadest sense, modernity refers to the forms of social, political, and cultural organization that began in Europe during the 17th century and whose effects have settled over time. Notably, modernity has historical charm as it is typically associated with notions such as ‘civility’ and ‘civilization’. Nonetheless, a large number of contemporary sociopolitical problems can be associated with the unfinished and continuing nature of modernity. Therefore, to discuss the transformational nature of the concept of privacy in the context of ongoing modernity—which is often called ‘thoughtful modernity’—it is necessary to develop flexible and dynamic methods of analysis. To this end, this study actively draws from arguments used to posit distinctions between public and private spheres and questions such as social religion and surveillance, as well as a number of related physical phenomena. The frameworks are flexible and dynamic because this study also employs a vehicle-based approach. Previous studies have discussed a number of relevant dynamics in the context of modernity. However, given the emergence of new communication technologies and their impact on our social lives, this study aims to examine these above frameworks in relation to privacy. Since privacy is a historical phenomenon, different generations view privacy and other essential questions related to privacy differently. This study mainly aims to highlight discuss the ways in which the concept of privacy has changed over time. The study also involves in-depth interviews of people from different generations. These interviews focus on privacy in the context of family relations. In addition, these interviews have also been used to identify the ways in which privacy and other related concepts have transformed over time.
In other words, the focus of this study is primarily historical. By adopting a historical perspective, this study also aims to identify the ways in which discussions about religion, the public sphere, the private sphere, surveillance, and the human body have changed over time. The study argues that the historical changes (especially generational changes) in the concept of privacy are manifested in gender differences, and that new communication technologies feed on this disparity. Ultimately, the study aims to ascertain how privacy is transformed within relevant headings. Therefore, it is mainly based on a qualitative methodology. More accurately, this study uses the “Phenomenological Approach.” The sample for this study included men and women living in Turkey. Participants were selected using the “Criterion Sampling” (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2013, p. 140) method, a purposeful sampling technique. Participants were divided into two groups—’male’ and ‘female’—to effectively determine the gender gap in the conception of privacy. Accordingly, participants were also classified as follows: ‘Grandmother, mother, female grandchild’ and ‘grandfather, father, male grandchild’. This classification enabled us to focus on the generational differences in the conception of privacy.
The research also involved structured, in-depth interviews, and questions were prepared according to the ‘interview form approach’. Questions were prepared based on themes identified through a careful literature survey (body, public sphere, private sphere, social religion, surveillance). All questions involved probes. The interviews were digitally recorded. The collected data were analyzed using the ‘descriptive analysis’ method.
The analysis revealed that only some conceptions changed over generations. In particular, privacy has transformed the meaning of reflexive modernity into privacy. In other words, privacy has become a polyphonic concept within the framework of reflexive modernity. The research also points to the existence of two different dimensions: (i) the collective dimension resulting from the use of new communication technologies and (ii) the individual dimension in which the individual personally characterizes himself / herself within a social environment.
