Gündelik Hayatın Dönüşümünde Bir İmkân Olarak Toplumsal Muhalefetin Değerlendirilmesi: Cumartesi Anneleri Üzerine Bir Araştırma

Abstract

The aim of this research is to examine how social opposition transforms everyday life on the basis of the Saturday Mothers movement. Having a strict, dull and static structure, everyday life imposes itself to ordinary people through its oppressive dynamics. To break out from this static structure however, is possible through the act of protest. Being a part of a protest results in radical transformations in the lives of protesters. On the basis of the Saturday Mothers movement as an epitome of this transformation, this research is composed of four chapters. The methodology section is the first chapter of this research. As a part of the research, twenty-five interviews were conducted with the protesters of the Saturday Mothers movement, in which thirteen of those were with the relatives of the disappeared people and twelve of those were with the activists. The data collected from these interviews, together with the conceptual and theoretical framework, generates a firm base for the research. In this chapter, the interviewing process, the selection of interviewees, the limitations depending on place and time are examined in detail. In this regard, the selection of the subject, the scope of the study and the importance of this subject as a PhD dissertation are discussed. In the second chapter of the study, the theoretical framework relating to the concept of everyday life is assessed. First, everyday life is defined as a concept, and then theoretical perspectives concerning the foundations of everyday life are analysed. In this context, the critical perspectives of Henri Lefebvre, Michel de Certeau and Agnes Heller are discussed. Lastly, the actors, time and space concerning the practical organisation of everyday life are examined. In the third chapter of the study, the concept of everyday life as a field of opposition is investigated. First, the approach of the new social movements that enables to examine the concept of everyday life and opposition together, and human rights movement and activism of the disappeared people’s relatives that is acknowledged within this approach, are assessed. Second, the concept of protest as a factor contributing the transformation of everyday life is discussed. Protester profile, place and civil disobedience characteristic of a protest are explained as the main constituents of a protest. In the fourth and last chapter of the study, the Saturday Mothers movement is assessed as an activism of disappeared people’s relatives and human rights movement. During this investigation, the data that obtained from the interviews is presented. In this context, the transformation of the protesters from participants of the protest to human rights advocates is discussed.