Between a refuge and a stepping stone :|an organisational analysis of underground music in Turkey

Abstract

This thesis is focusing on an organisational and discursive analysis of a field of cultural production: the underground music scene in Turkey. As a distinct cultural production, the underground is shaped by its autonomous character from larger fields of economy, culture and politics. The research is based on a two-year-long participant observation in the subject field and nineteen in-depth interviews conducted throughout this period. The organisational analysis includes an examination and categorisation of different types of cooperation by focusing on processes of gathering, division of labour, decision-making and financial arrangements. The discursive analysis clarifies the most common value judgements operating in the scene, relating to different practices of inclusivity and collaboration. Through illuminating the correspondences between organisational structures and dominant discourses in the underground music scene, this research offers a distinct approach to the social process in the making of cultural products.