Delikanlılık (youth masculinity) in the inner city: everyday resistance for survival and respect

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1558776 (Table of Contents)

This thesis analyzes the everyday practices of male youth living in İçerenköy neighborhood, an inner-city area in Istanbul, which is recorded as having high social and criminal risk. Through narratives of young people and ethnographic fieldwork on their everyday practices, I explore their means of resistance for survival and personal dignity. Derived from Foucauldian approach, the concept of “resistance”, which centers on the relation between structural constraints and the subject, constitutes the core of analysis both in the narratives and ethnographic research. In this respect, this study investigates the agency of inner city youth in relation to structural constraints, gender relations, age hierarchy, violence, concluding with policy implications. I also suggest that everyday resistance furthers youth’s self-destructive behavior and social marginalization in the long term. Based upon the idea that both youth and masculinity are produced by a particular context, this study also aims to be a guide for policy-makers and civil society initiatives.