@article{article_267059, title={A Qualitative Inquiry from the Aegean Region: Changing Ruling Class in Business Circles}, journal={Bilig}, pages={247–268}, year={2014}, author={Uçel, Ela Burcu and Katrinli, Alev}, keywords={Ruling class, business, politics, Turkey, İslamic Capital, woman}, abstract={This paper aims to examine the Turkish ruling class in business circles and to detect possible changes that might have occurred in the past ten to fifteen years. In the 2002 generalelections, the ruling political party changed, and an Islamicoriented party, AKP (Justice and Development Party), securedoffice. The following years presented observable changes inthe Turkish political life, which may have caused relatedchanges in the ruling class profile of the business circles in thecountry. In the aftermath of these changes, the current studyattempts to portray the present ruling class of business inTurkey from an Aegean perspective. A series of in-depth interviews were conducted with carefully selected actors of thebusiness, political and academic circles from the Aegean Region. The findings exhibited a change in the ruling class profile in business circles and presented a description of this class}, number={71}, publisher={Khoja Akhmet Yassawi International Kazakh-Turkish University}