Community, change and border towns

Abstract

This book provides an interdisciplinary approach to power, inclusion/exclusion and hierarchy in a Turkish border town, with a focus on the impact of nation-state border on social stratification and change. Through the lens of ethnographic research and oral history, the book explores social mobility among various strata within the context of transition from Ottoman rule to the Republican regime, in order to reveal culturally informed strategies of border dwellers in coming to grips with new border contexts. It is suggested that the border perspective will move the social analysis beyond "methodological territorialism" and provide a theoretical framework that explores social change at the intersection of local, national and transnational processes.