ABSTRACT
The chapter explores how social class shapes women's neighbouring practices. The fundamental difference between the neighbouring relations in the estate and those found in gecekondu neighbourhoods is the degree of ‘autonomy’ and ‘control’ women have over their contact with neighbours. The level of intimacy appropriated in each neighbourhood reflects the class identities found therein. The first section in this chapter highlights that the mechanisms for appropriating ‘autonomy’ and ‘intimacy’ in neighbouring are tied to changing socio-spatial circumstances, such as increases in density and/or crime, as well as changing notions of ‘appropriate’ sets of social relations. The second section focuses more specifically on a leisure activity, Reception Day, to illustrate the ways in which neighbouring as leisure has been practised and has changed over time. It is evidenced that while in middle-class circles, Reception Day is still practised as a neighbouring activity creating bonding among neighbours, its practice in working-class neighbourhoods rarely involves gatherings or socialisation; instead, its function is rather reduced to being a method of saving money. The examination of leisure aspects of neighbouring sheds light on the dynamics of privacy and intimacy in working-class and middle-class women's everyday in Turkey.
