Masculinities at night in the provinces

Abstract

This thesis seeks to analyze the provincial nightlife and the relationalities that are attached to it. With this aim, firstly, I analyze the theme of ‘distance' that constitutes the province as a historical geography and an administrative unit, and the theme of ‘boredom' that constitutes the province as a sociological phenomenon. Based on these themes, I explain how the province, beyond a rural production unit and social relations surrounding it, is intertwined with the city. On the other hand, the province and its nightlife that promises a modern experience, leads to authentic masculinity experiences within its own social relations. The reproduction and continuity of masculinity is analyzed here in terms of nightlife typologies that each reproduce its own masculinity. At the same time, hostess women are regarded as major actors in nightlife in this study. I analyze the socioeconomic and sociocultural background that has led to their formation in nightlife through Turkey’s neoliberal transformation, and through the themes of indebtedness and poverty. The way hostesses try to survive in nightlife is analyzed in terms of passive resistance forms and their relations with the local community and the costumers. Hence, this study is about what constitutes the province rather than where it is constituted. It is about how nightlife relations are formed and to what kind of masculinities and femininities this leads to.