ABSTRACT
By introducing the reader to the socio-spatial features of the neighbourhoods, the research participants’ profiles, and a broad summary of their leisure activities, this chapter seeks to immerse the reader in the research setting. Summarised aspects of the national background in the preceding chapter take on a more tangible texture since the research neighbourhoods are representative of contemporary Turkish working-class and middle-class living areas. Each neighbourhood’s historical evolution is described in the first section of the chapter. These narratives will enable us to understand not only the general class features of these residential environments but also the ways in which the working- and middle classes are divided among themselves. The reader’s attention is drawn to the sample’s broader qualities in the second section, which explains the similarities and variations between each group’s overall attributes. The shared emotions and self-perceptions in each group serve as the framework for the disparities. In other words, the distinctive features emerge from the way women view their value in comparison to the ‘Other’. The cultural distinctions across the social class categories are also reflected in their summarised leisure pursuits.
