Flexible Selves in Flexible Times? Yoga and Neoliberal Subjectivities in Istanbul

Abstract

This article adds to contemporary analyses of neoliberal subjectivities by focusing on middle-class yoga practitioners in Istanbul, Turkey. Drawing on in-depth interviews, it questions the dominant interpretation of yoga as a form of neoliberal governance and suggests that within the nexus of neoliberal globalisation, autocratisation and precarisation, practices that are often labeled ‘lifestyle consumption’ might provide individuals with the discursive tools to question entrepreneurial norms. Expanding the geographical scope of existing research as well as providing a theoretically informed analysis of empirical data, the article makes an original contribution to understandings of neoliberal subjectivities by bridging work on neoliberal subjectivities and lifestyle politics.