Gender and service work in Turkey's new consumerist economy : a case study at three cafe chains

Abstract

Turkey’s embrace of neoliberal economic policies since the 1980s has given rise to both to an urban consumer base and the retail industries that cater to it. The shopping centers, retail chains, restaurants, and coffee shops proliferating all over the cities are more than simply sites of consumption, however. They also constitute new, semi-public spaces where gender norms are relatively unfixed, and therefore open for social contestation. Extending a literature that privileges the experiences of women shoppers in renegotiating acceptable public gendered behavior, this thesis focuses on the women workers who occupy an ambivalent role within the servicescape. In a labor market where women’s participation has been historically low, these new service sector jobs offer potential avenues for the public and professional visibility of women. However, they are also constrained by their position in an employment relation that objectifies their subjectivities and subsumes their emotional and embodied labor in the company brand image. Based on a case study of three café chains in Istanbul, this thesis shows the multiple ways gender norms are being structured and interpreted in Turkey’s growing service sector. The potentials and pitfalls of these processes are explored in the words of the young women and men who occupy positions in this fastest-growing sector of the Turkish labor market.