When downward mobility haunts: reproduction crisis and educational strategies of Turkish middle class under the AK Party rule

Abstract

The gradual restructuring of the political economy of Turkey after the 1980s has changed the positioning of the middle class and the importance of its social, economic, and cultural capitals. In particular, lowering the quality of public education through systematic privatization and Islamisation has constituted a significant threat to this class’ reproduction capacity. Drawing on three years of longitudinal qualitative data from parents in Istanbul, we show that this class experiences a reproduction crisis and follows a two-step strategy for ensuring their children’s social mobility: capturing public schools with a middle-class school-mix and transforming them into private-school-like spaces through intense engagement.