Modern self and social imaginary: civil society organizations as the agents of fashioning modern mothers

Abstract

This study basically argues the ways of operation of civil society organizations (CSOs) on micro-level of society. Based on this discussion, it offers to interrogate the micro-levels of Turkish modernity which also has been a missing part in the research of Turkish modernization. Particularly after the Marmara Earthquake of 1999, CSOs have appeared as mechanisms which provide social services to people and disseminate peculiar imaginaries. It also the same process through which middle classes has begun to voice their desire to transform particular domains of society. This case of this study is on AÇEV (Anne Çocuk Eğitim Vakfı). It analyzes the imaginary of AÇEV which opens up a “space of intervention” and is articulated through discourses of the normal development of children and modernizing motherhood. The analyses of this study consist of three parts. In the first part, the official social imaginary of AÇEV is interpreted. In the process of interpretation I problematized the projects and techniques deployed in AÇEV programs via using analytical tools provided by governmentality studies. Second part of the analyses is concerned with AÇEV’s Mother Child Education Program (MOCEP) as a mechanism to fashion modern mother. Finally, at the third part, I interpreted the interviews that I have conducted with the mothers who has participated in MOCEP to see the effects of program.