TITLE:
Urban Happiness and Gardening Relationship: The Case of Ankara Capital
AUTHORS:
Simay Ozlu-Diniz, Aytul Kasapoglu
KEYWORDS:
Urbanization, Happiness, Gardening, Actor-Network Theory, Mixed Design, Turkey
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Applied Sociology,
Vol.11 No.12,
December
28,
2021
ABSTRACT: The main problem of this research is that the majority of the Ankara
residents’ satisfaction with life is low in their daily life. Urban happiness
is a contemporary subject due to industrialization and its problems, which leads individuals to find new coping strategies towards food security
and sustainable cities. In this context, the main research question aimed to be
answered is: What is the relationship between gardening and individual
happiness in Ankara? McFarlane’s non-human and Latour’s ANT as relational
sociological theories are used to explain plants as “actants” and gardening as
a function to increase happiness in cities. In this research, a mixed method
was used combining quantitative and qualitative research techniques that
contribute to relational sociology. Online surveys with gardeners and
non-gardeners of 69 participants in Ankara were conducted. Statistical analyses
showed that gardening activities are influential in greater satisfaction with
life, which is reversely correlated with citizens’ will to migrate. In contrast
to expectations, there was no significant relationship between gardening and
environmentalist concerns, and no difference was found when gardeners and
non-gardeners were compared. This may be interpreted by commodification of the gardening
activity or the hedonistic lifestyle of Turkish society as well as the
consumerist base of Islamic culture and social differences in addition to
economic concerns that undermine environmental concerns. In order to understand
the effects in specific, qualitative research was conducted with 14
participants. Through axial coding and word cloud analyses, it was
revealed that the environmentalists’ dance with nature can be categorized into
three as “humanists”, “holistics” and “activists” regarding their human
centralization perspective.