Governing aging in Turkey: municipal active aging discourses and the construction of the desirable older subject
Author(s)
Advisor
Erman, TahireDate
2022-12Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
36
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Abstract
This thesis examines active aging discourses through the lens of governmentality
theory of Foucault. The focus is on how active aging discourses, which primarily
promote an autonomous and productive older subject as desirable, are shaped by the
broader policy and welfare context in Turkey. In the Western context, active aging
functions as a tool of neoliberal governmentality which responsibilize older
individuals for managing their own welfare and aging process through specific
conducts and self-technologies, mainly reflecting Western middle-class values. This
promote the autonomous and productive desirable older subject in response to the
negative construction of aging as a demographic ‘crisis’ associated with increasing
public expenditures in a neoliberal context of the decreasing roles of the welfare state.
In Turkey, neo-conservativism and neo-liberalism articulate each other in a context
where the welfare regime historically and still predominantly relies on family; thus,
the rationalization of active aging discourses are expected to differ from those in the
Western context. Focusing on the municipal discourses on active aging, this thesis
looks at how problematizations of aging vary at local level. It considers how municipalities problematize aging and how those problematizations are addressed by
active aging discourses. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with 15 people from
11 municipalities across the country, the research finds that population aging in Turkey
is problematized in line with the transformation of families and their decreasing
caregiving capacity—namely, as a care crisis. Within this framework, various
distinctions and commonalities across the regional and socio-economic development
level are observed and overall it is found that Turkish municipal active aging
discourses promote an autonomous, self-reliant older subject as desirable in order to
compensate for the decreasing welfare potential of families.