Nation-Building in Modern Turkey: The 'People's Houses', the State and the Citizen

by Alexandros Lamprou

Overview

From 1924 to 1946 the Republic of Turkey was in effect ruled as an authoritarian single-party regime. During these years the state embarked upon an extensive reform programme of modernisation and nation-building. Alexandros Lamprou here offers an alternative understanding of social change and state-society relations in Turkey, shifting the focus from the state as the prime instigator of change to the population's participation in the process of reform. Through the study of the 'People's Houses', the community centres opened and operated by the Republican People's Party in most cities and towns of Turkey, and using previously unpublished archival material, Lamprou analyses how ordinary people experienced, negotiated and resisted the reforms in the 1930s and 1940s and how this process contributed to the shaping of social identities. This book will be essential reading for students and scholars of nation-building, socio-cultural change and state-society relations in modern Turkey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780768762
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/30/2015
Series:	Library of Modern Turkey
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 4.90(d)

About the Author

Alexandros Lamprou teaches in the Faculty of Languages, History and Geography, Ankara University. He has formerly taught at University of Crete and holds a PhD from the University of Leiden.

Table of Contents

Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction

1. The People's House
2. People's Houses in Provincial Urban Centres
3. People's Houses and Local Politics
4. People's Houses vs Coffee Houses
5. Women on the Halkevi Stage
6. People's Houses in the Countryside
7. Conclusions

Notes
Bibliography
Index