Authoritarian Public Sphere of Conservative Businessmen in Turkey

This paper is a part of a research funded by TUBITAK titled: New Capital and Conservatism: Anatolian Tigers from the perspective of Sociology of everyday life. In particular this paper is an attempt to evaluate the existing data from the following perspective: What is the scope and extent of being conservative with reference to new capital holders in Turkey? This research investigates the social and political values, attitudes and lifestyles of conservative entrepreneurs otherwise called “Anatolian Tigers” from urban centers of Turkey such as Konya Gaziantep and Kayseri. I am interested in exploring how these businessmen present themselves in the public sphere, their power, aspirations, projection of masculinity, their position vis-à-vis other businessman and their perception of their place in the general hierarchy prevalent in the social and political life they lead. In this regard I attempt to grasp how they connect themselves with conservative politics and power –holders that surround them. How they position themselves with reference to authoritarian politics? What is their vision of conservative society and politics? These are the basic questions that guide my research. In this research I rely on information gathered from in-depth interviews with businessman and women conducted in 2015 and 2016.