From the place of the "dangerous classes" to the place of danger: emergence of new youth subjectivities in Zeytinburnu

Abstract

This thesis examines the emergence of new subjectivities among the youth of Zeytinburnu as "imitators" of the middle classes, petty criminals, drug dealers, drug addicts and clubbers under the sway of neoliberal "consumer society." I focused upon their detachment from the former working class culture informed by a notion of modesty (kanaatkarlık) and their desire to enter the world historical stage called modernity. I discussed how lives of the Zeytinburnu youth, who are excluded from the wage and work processes and the so-called "city culture", turned into "wasted lives" and argued that there is a congruity between the production of "waste" in the tendencies of the neoliberal "consumer society" and the desires of the Zeytinburnu youth to be in the "privileged places" and this congruity turned the lives of the young people of Zeytinburnu (especially young men) into "wasted lives".