This project involves an ethnographic study of how middle class families in Turkey strategies to obtain appropriate education's to assure their children's access to good jobs as Turkey opens its markets to the West. The investigators are an anthropologist and an economist who will conduct in-depth interviews and participant-observation to study the life course and family histories of a sample of families from a larger survey done by the investigators recently. The economic context of middle-class work is changing in response to global changes in financial markets leading to the liberalization of local economies. The procedures families use to gain access to new jobs and to maintain their class status through proper educational and forms of credentials will be studied in depth. This research is important because it will add a case study of middle class insecurity and social strategies to the small body of cases focused on the US and other Western nations. Increased understanding of the Turkish case will advance our understanding of general processes as against culturally particular reactions. General knowledge of middle-class situations and strategies is valuable because many anti-government political movements have been fueled by middle-class resentment and frustration at being blocked from the high standard of living and social position promised by governments instituting radical socio-economic changes. This sort of in-depth ethnographic study will provide valuable information on local middle-class reactions to global changes.
