INDIVIDUAL ESCAPISM OR ECO-COMMUNITY: SELECTED CASES OF ECOVILLAGE INITIATIVES IN TURKEY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY EBRU ARICAN IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY APRIL 2014 1 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences ____________________ Prof. Dr. Meliha Altunışık Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ____________________ Prof. Dr. Ayşe Saktanber Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ____________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. Ayşe Gündüz Hoşgör (METU, SOC) _____________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç (METU, SOC) _____________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Necmi Erdoğan (METU, ADM) _____________________ Assoc. Prof. Dr. Erdoğan Yıldırım (METU, SOC) _____________________ Assist. Prof. Dr. Ersan Ocak (Bilkent, COMD) _____________________ 1 PLAGIARISM I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name: Ebru Arıcan Signature: iii ABSTRACT INDIVIDUAL ESCAPISM OR ECO-COMMUNITY: SELECTED CASES OF ECOVILLAGE INITIATIVES IN TURKEY Arıcan, Ebru PhD., Department of Sociology Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç April 2014, 256 pages The aim of this study is to examine ecovillage initiatives in Turkey by focusing on green lifestyles and community strategies as agents of political change. In Turkey, the first ecovillage initiatives started to appear in the 1990s. Ecovillage initiatives, like ecovillages in the world, are intended to create models of sustainability and self- sufficiency and to promote ecologically sound practices and values. Members of ecovillage initiatives taking part in this study, have concerns about quality of life issues. They associate quality of life with healthy food, physical/spiritual health and well-being, all of which are based upon sustainable ecological principles. Ecovillage dwellers escape from cities to practice an ecological lifestyle in settlements of their choice because they perceive that their basic quality of life is threatened by poor environmental quality in the cities. They emphasize individual actions, not macro- economic, social and political structures, as the major cause of environmental degradation. This study is a modest attempt to explore whether ecovillage initiatives have the potential to become the kind of human-scale, self-sustaining eco-communities suggested by social ecology perspective. It also addresses whether ecovillage initiatives should be considered as the flight of certain members of the urban middle iv classes to rural areas, and whether they should be understood as individualistic and private efforts of educated and propertied (urban) middle classes. Keywords: Ecovillage initiatives, Turkey, green lifestyle strategies, community strategies, flight of the urban middle classes. v ÖZ BİREYSEL KAÇIŞ YA DA EKO-TOPLULUK: TÜRKİYE’DEKİ EKOKÖY GİRİŞİMLERİNDEN ÖRNEKLER Arıcan, Ebru Doktora, Sosyoloji Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç Nisan 2014, 256 sayfa Bu çalışma, Türkiye’de ilk olarak 1990’larda ortaya çıkmaya başlayan ekoköy girişimlerini yaşam tarzı ve topluluk stratejileri üzerinden incelemeyi amaçlamaktadır. Ekoköy girişimleri, dünyadaki örnekleri gibi, sürdürülebilir ve kendi kendine yeten yerleşim modelleri oluşturmayı, ekolojik pratikleri ve değerleri teşvik etmeyi ve kırsalda edinilen deneyimleri diğer insanlarla paylaşmayı hedeflemektedir. Araştırmaya dâhil edilen girişimlerin parçası olan bireyler, ekolojik ilkeleri temel alan, fiziksel/spritüel sağlık, sağlıklı gıda ve refah ile ilişkilendirdikleri iyi hayat arayışındadır. İyi bir hayatın kentlerde çevresel riskler karşısında tehdit altında olduğunu düşünen bireyler, kentten kaçarak kendi seçtikleri yerleşimlerde ekolojik yaşam tarzını pratik etmeyi alternatif bir yol olarak görmektedirler. Ekolojik bozulmanın nedeni olarak makro-ekonomik, toplumsal ve politik yapılara değil bireysel eylemlere vurgu yapan, girişimlerin parçası olan bireyler toplumsal yapılarda değişim hedeflemezler. Bu çalışma, ekoköy girişimlerinin, toplumsal ekoloji anlayışı tarafından önerilen insan ölçekli, kendi kendine yeten eko- topluluklara dönüşme potansiyellerini araştırmaktadır. Ayrıca, ekoköy girişimlerinin, mülk sahibi, eğitimli, kentli orta sınıfların bireysel kaçış girişimleri olarak değerlendirilip değerlendirilemeyeceğini tartışmaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Ekoköy girişimleri, Türkiye, yeşil yaşam tarzı stratejileri, topluluk stratejileri, kentten kaçış. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Helga Rittersberger-Tılıç for the contribution, encouragement, patience and emotional support that she has provided throughout my time as her student. This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance of my supervisor. I also thank the members of my thesis committee, Necmi Erdoğan, Ersan Ocak, Ayşe Gündüz Hoşgör, and Erdoğan Yıldırım for their valuable comments and recommendations, all of which made this thesis better. To conduct a fieldwork would be an exhausting process without Güler Aydın. I am grateful to her for all the support she provided during this process. I want to express my gratitude to David Hockenbery for proofreading this thesis. I would like to thank Başak Önsal, Özlem Çelik, Sündüs Aydın and Dawn Nowacki for their help. I would like to thank Ali Serdar Gültekin for all his help, support and patience during this writing process. I also thank my other friends for providing friendship that I needed. Thanks also my study participants who shared their opinions and experiences with me during fieldwork. I would like to express my special thanks to Güneşin Aydemir for her invaluable help. Lastly, I would like to express my heart-felt gratitude to my family for their love and patience. Their support has been unconditional all these years. I am deeply thankful to them for encouraging me in all of my pursuits. Special thanks go to my brother Tunca Arıcan. I owe my deepest gratitude to him for all his help, advice and support that he provided throughout the writing process. He has faith in me and my intellect even when I did not have faith in myself. This thesis was enriched significantly through helpful discussions with him. But most of all, I am deeply thankful to him for his love and friendship. None of this would have been possible without my family. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ............................................................................................................ iii ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iv ÖZ ............................................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ....................................................................................... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS .......................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 2. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 14 2.1 Fieldwork Design and Fieldwork ................................................................ 15 2.2 Limitations of the Research ........................................................................ 25 2.3 Interpretation of Data .................................................................................. 27 3. THEORETICAL INSIGHTS AND DISCUSSIONS OF LIFESTYLE AND COMMUNITY POLITICS .............................................................................. 28 3.1 Lifestyle Politics .......................................................................................... 30 3.2 Community Politics ..................................................................................... 40 4. HISTORICAL ROOTS OF THE ECOVILLAGE MOVEMENT AND ECOVILLAGES .............................................................................................. 46 4.1 Romantic Conception of Nature .................................................................. 46 4.2 The Country and the City ............................................................................ 50 4.3 Counterculture and the Hippie Movement .................................................. 53 4.4 Ecovillages as a Form of Intentional Community ....................................... 58 4.5 General Characteristics of the Ecovillages ................................................. 62 5. ENVIRONMENTALISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL MOBILIZATIONS IN TURKEY .................................................................................................... 70 5.1 Pre-1950 and Between 1950 and 1980 ........................................................ 71 5.2 Post-1980s ..................................................................................................