The Week of Local Turkish Products for Turkish Children for Economic Development Policies: A Message for Worldwide Pandemics

Fazila Derya Agis, University of the People

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk organized and held the Izmir Economic Congress in 1923: the production of national goods was determined for the economic development of the Republic of Turkey in order to invest more money in Turkish farming, since the First World War was just over and the Republic of Turkey needed more economic power as a new nation. The prime minister of Turkey Ismet Inonu delivered a talk in the Turkish General Assembly on December 12, 1929 for promoting the use of national and local products and thriftiness. The week of national products has been celebrated in every December in Turkish nurseries and primary schools since 1946; however, the week’s exact name became “Thrift, Investment, and Turkish Goods” in 1983. Students organize role plays, exhibitions, competitions, and farmers’ markets in their schools. This study will analyze the Durkheimian mechanical and organic solidarity forms suggested to be taught to nursery and primary school children via Turkish tongue twisters where organic solidarity’s importance is emphasized versus mechanical solidarity for celebrating “The Thrift, Investment, and Turkish Goods Week.” The organic solidarity appears in the marketing processes depicted in the tongue twisters; all the producers’ unique aim is the economic prosperity of Turkey despite their ethnic, occupational, and religious differences. The tongue twisters are about foods presented as cultural metaphorical elements, showing the values of hard work, collaboration, development, and education. Organic solidarity is referred as an element, making the producer society function and develop according to several contemporary Turkish tongue twisters that also lead to the appreciation of nature from an environmental humanistic perspective. The tongue twisters show that organic solidarity prevails not only in the Turkish society following the traces of Atatürk, but also in nature that provides humans with different local nutrients during turbulent times of global pandemics.

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 Presented in Session 48. Childhood and Biopolitics