Talk by Burcu Çıngay

Turkish

With local production of cars during the 1960s and 1970s, automobility spread to Turkey’s middle class population. Similar to its impact in Europe, the automobile became a symbol of middle class modernization. The economic, social and cultural aspects of this expansion, however, have yet to be adequately investigated.

There are two factors that accelerated the expansion of automobility in Turkey. First, the decision to transfer automobile production techniques into the country, and the subsequent establishment of an automobile industry that allowed for local mass-production. Second was the change in the public’s perception of automobility, which directly influenced the formation of the market, as well as patterns of middle class consumption. This change in perception can be traced through products of popular culture, such as advertisements, movies and song lyrics. In this respect, both as an image and as a commodity, the automobile fascinated and transformed the urban middle class, accelerating the development of modern consumer society.

Burcu Çıngay completed her master’s studies in 2008 at the Atatürk Institute at Boğaziçi University with her thesis “Automobility in Turkey: A Critical Evaluation of Turkish Automobile Production in the 1960s and 1970s.” She is currently engaged in doctoral studies at the same institute and has been giving undergraduate-level lectures on the history of the Turkish Republic at Boğaziçi University since 2010.