On the social origin of the Turkish leisure class: for a Veblenian turn in the Marxian research program of Turkish studies

In this essay I aim to combine the Marxian concept of the Asiatic mode of production, employed as an analytical tool to study the Ottoman social formation, with Veblen’s theory of the leisure class. I argue that a Veblenian turn in the Marxian strand of Turkish studies may constitute theoretically as well as empirically progressive problemshifts in this research program –as defined by Lakatos-, leading to an actual discovery of some new facts concerning the non-European social origin of the Turkish social formation.