Reconnecting with Nature: sustainable and minimalist lifestyles in Turkey
This thesis explores the emergence of a sustainable and minimalist lifestyle movement in Turkey with a specific focus on urban to rural migration among middle-class professionals. Grounded in an anthropological perspective, the study is based on participatory field research over a 10-month period with individuals who have made life decisions to quit their jobs and leave behind their urban careers to settle in small towns and villages in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions of Turkey. The research considers the political implications of this adopting of a simpler, slower, and self-sufficient lifestyles. It explores whether and in what ways this ‘movement’ both serves as a critique of contemporary society and has potential for addressing social and cultural inequalities by prioritising emotions, affect, and care. Following the lives and events of rural migrants, the thesis delves into a range of vital topics: the social and historical context of urban to rural movement; motivations for settling in rural locations; work and community relationships there; and the broader implications of this migration experience for both humans and nonhumans living in the area. In exploring how this class of people generate alternative ways of relating, communicating, and living with nonhuman living beings, the research also considers how their activities relate to global crises such as the climate crisis, food security, overwork, overconsumption, and people’s existential desires for meaningful change and survival.