Patterns of eating out in contemporary Beyoğlu: a new middle class- oriented approach

Abstract

This thesis explores the relationship of class and food consumption in contemporary urban life of Turkey within the frame of the new middle class and eating-out concepts. Focusing on certain restaurants, which have been analyzed as markers of social and cultural trends, in the historical and cosmopolitan district of Beyoğlu a qualitative research has been held instrumentalizing semi-structured in-depth interviews and participant observations as well as an internet-based survey of mainstream newspapers. This study shows how cultural capital manifests itself in displaying tastes and consumption practices and how food and eating out are significant parts of life style consumption contributing to within class differentiations. In the neoliberal restructuring process of Turkey after 1980 military coup, a new middle class or a professional class has gained the leading role in shaping the patterns of consumption by 2000s and it has been seen that the urban space is reshaped according to their needs and values. Differing form 1990s, it has been observed that cultural omnivorousness has replaced snobbery especially in food consumption and this has led to generating new forms of distinction.