Gender and Labor within the Turkish Context of Local Development in the Era of Globalization

Abstract

Purpose – This chapter aims to explore and discuss how women paid and unpaid labor in weaving is positioned in the flexible production chain in the context of local development.

Methodology/approach – It is based on a research11Report on Effects and Results of the Relationships between Manufacturers and Local Weavers on the Local Social Structure: Cases of Mugla/Yesilyurt, Istanbul/Sile and Kastamonu in collaboration with Asuman Turkun-Erendil and supported by Mugla University Research Projects Unit, 2006 (unpublished project report). study, using mainly oral history methods, of three weaving centers in Anatolia in their attempts to achieve local development through the restructuring of their traditional craft.

Findings – This study shows how a flexible production process is organized in ways in which women's labor is almost always positioned as cheap and insecure. In this process, through production of hegemonic discourses, symbolic capital of secure women's work is drastically decreased and that of the production activity itself (weaving) is increased. It also discusses how the state as the main carrier of symbolic violence, plays an important role in expansion of flexible production and informality directly (with its policies applied in its own enterprises) or indirectly (with its policies in general).

Originality/value of paper – By focusing on the mechanisms through women's labor is kept cheap or unpaid in the organization of the entire production process and also on the relationships between women's labor and the state in local development context, critical points for future discussion and policy-making are raised.

Citation

Hattatoglu, D. (2011), "Gender and Labor within the Turkish Context of Local Development in the Era of Globalization", Ngan-Ling Chow, E., Texler Segal, M. and Tan, L. (Ed.) Analyzing Gender, Intersectionality, and Multiple Inequalities: Global, Transnational and Local Contexts (Advances in Gender Research, Vol. 15), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 139-159. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-2126(2011)0000015012