Türkiye shares many similarities with advanced industrial Western countries, and Yavaş writes as if there are few, if any, significant differences between Türkiye and, say, Australia, Belgium, or Canada. His account of Türkiye’s “white collar blues”—by which he means “disappointed, exhausted, and trapped” high-income workers— could just as easily apply to similar people in any advanced country. Substitute “Austria” for “Türkiye,” and his account would hardly change.

To be sure, Yavaş provides an interesting account of how misleading is “the widespread assumption that high-salary corporate jobs make people happy and content.” Interviewing over 100 people (half of them women) aged 25 to 44 who were born and grew up in Türkiye and now work in Istanbul and New York, he finds them overwhelmingly “disappointed, exhausted, and trapped, and they have the nagging sense that the high income and prestige they have worked so hard to attain are in fact impoverishing their lives.” He vividly captures “the corporate culture of greedy work—demanding an undivided commitment to work over everything else in life.” And he discusses, with obvious approval, those who left corporate life to return to family, a simpler lifestyle, and more fulfilling work, whether through freelancing, entrepreneurship, or occupational change (e.g., becoming a yoga instructor).

All of which sounds like the typical Western liberal critique of corporate capitalism because indeed that is what it is. Yavaş provides no perspective on how life looks to people who did not enjoy the opportunities of his interviewees. To be sure, some poor people are happy, and some rich people are discontent—but is it really the case that high income makes one worse off?

Besides its obvious ideological bias against Western corporate life, Yavaş’ account is striking for how it floats in midair, disconnected from the society in which the interviewees live. We are told remarkably little about how life (as distinct from work) differs for Turks living in New York compared to those in Istanbul. Surely the fact of being an immigrant—living in a country with a different culture and language, far from family—affects one’s ability to make friends and feel content with life, two issues about which interviewees complain to Yavaş.

In addition, Türkiye has unique aspects that shaped significantly how the people he interviewed perceive their lives. Especially for Western audiences unfamiliar with Türkiye, more background on the milieus from which these people come and the society in which they grew up would have been useful. The lack of such information is glaring. The index does not even contain the word “Islam,” although the book describes people from a country where the role of religion has become a major issue. The interviewees grew up at a time when Türkiye was undergoing a sea shift: from a profoundly secular government that opposed public displays of religiosity to a deeply religious one where religion plays a central role. We are told nothing about the interviewees’ relationship with Islam. If, in fact, they—like many well-educated, Westernized Turks of their generation—have a tenuous connection to Islam at a time when religion is becoming increasingly influential, this dislocation surely could affect whether they feel “happy and content.”

Yavaş only mentions in passing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his AK party. Only the careful and attentive reader would realize that Turkish society has experienced a deep political and social rift, with nearly half the population on one side supporting Erdoğan and the other half opposing him tooth and nail. Yavaş’s failure to mention Erdoğan and the sweeping changes he has promoted is a glaring omission. That is all the more striking given that Erdoğan has been Türkiye’s prime minister or president since 2003, after serving as mayor of its largest city (Istanbul) from 1994 to 1998—in other words, he has dominated politics throughout the lifetime of Yavaş’s interviewees. Yet one would never know from Yavaş’s account that during the Erdoğan years, tremendous political pressure transformed the composition and lifestyle of the business elite—the very stratum Yavaş is analyzing.

In short, White-Collar Blues offers an easy read about liberal complaints against corporations but provides little insight into life of Türkiye’s middle class.

Patrick Clawson
Director for Research
The Washington Institute for Near East Policy