The New Religion-Based Work Ethic and Cultural Consumption Patterns of Religiously Conservative Groups in Turkey

Erden Erden

doi:10.3390/rel10100541

Abstract

This study discusses two religious elements of culture emerging within various religiously conservative groups in Turkey. The first is concerned with the building of a religious work ethic, framing work life with Islamic morals and norms. The second involves religiously oriented consumption patterns among these groups, which generate a faith-driven dimension of culture in capitalist consumer society. The study deals with how and why these two religious-cultural dimensions arose, and what forms they take in contemporary Turkey. These forms operate in the background of dress and fashion concerns of the aforesaid groups, influencing clothing styles and consumption patterns, as well as being linked to the capitalist-Islamic work ethic. The study demonstrates how consumption styles have changed in line with transformations in the class structure of the groups in question. It examines the extent to which, with the development of new religious ethic and consumption styles compatible with capitalist economic order, interpretations of Islam have shaped and organized the economic and cultural fields in Turkey. We argue that there is a mutually formative relationship between economy, religion, and culture. In that relationship, religion, which paves the way for forming a class-based religious perspective in keeping with a capitalist system, undertakes an active role in shaping an economic sphere and cultural activities in everyday life.

Highlights

The emergence of new, religiously grounded, work ethic and cultural consumption patterns has been a significant socioeconomic factor in contemporary Turkey. This involves cultural and economic forces molding devout and conservative individuals and groups—these forces recognized as a ‘social fact’ endued with compelling and coercive power that exercise control over groups and individuals (Durkheim 1982, p. 55). This has been intimately linked to new social class(es) emerging within the religiously conservative social groups in Turkey: a new religiously oriented middle class with conservative values
The work ethic constitutes an aspect of culture, reflecting upon how work and money are morally organized in economic life, within the aforesaid social groups with devout and conservative dispositions
Before a religious-cultural transformation, these groups have gone through an important change in their class positions as an outcome of economic restructuration of Turkey in the early 1980s

Summary

Introduction

The emergence of new, religiously grounded, work ethic and cultural consumption patterns has been a significant socioeconomic factor in contemporary Turkey This involves cultural and economic forces molding devout and conservative individuals and groups—these forces recognized as a ‘social fact’ endued with compelling and coercive power that exercise control over groups and individuals This has been intimately linked to new social class(es) emerging within the religiously conservative social groups in Turkey: a new religiously oriented middle class with conservative values These involve groups and individuals embracing a religion-based work ethic and developing cultural patterns with an entrepreneurial spirit, which direct their economic activities in light of religious and cultural backgrounds. Starting from these two points, the study attempts at analyzing two religious elements of culture, arising as a result of reinterpretation of Islam by new social classes with pious-conservative dispositions

The Formation of New Devout-Conservative Social Classes

The Work Ethic of the Religiously Conservative New Social Classes

Conclusions

Limitations