This article is situated at the intersection of urban restructuring, cultural conservatism and neoliberalism in the Turkish context to understand the new subject formations of poor women as they are relocated to high-rise apartment blocks in slum/squatter renewal projects by the prospect of homeownership via long-term mortgage loans. It contributes by showing the gendered effects of urban transformation on poor women as neoliberalism and conservatism interact. It draws upon two ethnographic studies that reveal women's experiences embedded both in neoliberalism and patriarchy. In neoliberalism, women's participation in the informal job market was promoted as they were made responsible for contributing to mortgage payments, and they were brought into consumption as they were provoked the desire for good homes via furnishing, and in patriarchy, women's traditional roles in social reproduction were demanded in spite of their new roles and responsibilities. The study ponders women's differentiated negotiations with patriarchy which resisted radical challenges when the family and the home framed women's new responsibilities and desires. The rising conservatism rooted in Islam in Turkey, which prioritizes the family over individual women, created the conditions for it.

The aim of this study is to examine various strategies of social work students for resolving conflicts between their personal and professional values in the atmosphere of rising conservatism in neoliberal Turkey. Grounded theory was chosen to reflect the feelings and thoughts of 34 students attending a creative drama-based group on critical value education designed by the researchers. Purposeful sampling was employed to identify the participants. Notes and memos, reflective diaries, in-group discussions and a semi-structured focus-group discussion were used to collect data. The data on the conflict resolving strategies of the students are discussed in detail within anti-oppressive perspective in social work practice, theory and education in a neoliberal and neoconservative Turkish context. Findings: The study reveals three main categories of conflict resolution strategies: (1) "Suppression": An uncomfortable way to neutralize personal values, (2) Stretching boundaries via "sanctification", and (3) "Fatalism" and pussyfooting around the statusquo. Uncomfortable feelings and fears are the basic triggers of these strategies when personal and professional values are in conflict. Applications: The study gives us insight about the necessity to be more emotionally reflective and powerful practitioners while challenging the uncomfortable feelings and fear triggered when personal and professional values are in conflict. We argue that we need to adopt anti-oppressive perspective in professional practice, theory and education to overcome conflicts between personal and professional values in a neoliberal context.

This study examines the opinions and attitudes of social work students towards issues of social justice. In the scope of the study, participants listed socio-economic status and political views as two factors that have the greatest bearing on 'being subjected to injustice' and stated that social workers should adopt an attitude of passive resistance against injustice. The students were found to believe that it is necessary for the state to play specific roles related to social welfare rights and to underline the political dimension of justice.

This article argues for the need to understand gendered dimensions of space in a contextualized way. It investigates residential space in three different types of housing settings of the poor, namely, a peripheral squatter neighborhood coded by rurality, a central slum neighborhood coded by criminality, and the housing estates in squatter/slum renewal projects coded by middle-class urbanity. Based on two field studies conducted in Ankara, Turkey's capital, it challenges the feminine-private versus masculine-public dichotomy: With women's presence inside the neighborhood, the squatter area was a "feminine space," whereas, with the violent control of neighborhood spaces by local men, the slum area was a "masculine space." Through its association with urban modernity, the public/private divide was enforced in the housing estates. While in the first housing estate, women's informal practices in its public spaces "feminized" and "ruralized" the estate, in the second housing estate, it made women feel safe inside apartments.

This qualitative research was based on structured small-group work conducted with 34 undergraduate social work students. It aimed to reveal students’ understandings of their personal values and modes of evaluation, their views regarding the value base of social work, and the possible influence of their personal values on professional practice. The data was collected through a semi-structured questionnaire, self-reflective diaries and a semi-structured focus-group discussion. During the study, it was seen that the students had difficulties when talking about their personal values. Yet, whenever they did talk about them, they saw that their values were actually not their own, but were socially constructed by the dominant cultural and moral norms. Prejudices based on the hegemonic cultural codes and norms, hidden in the form of personal values, are the biggest handicaps in the development of a professional identity. Thus, the values of social work are extremely important because they allow social workers to work professionally with all people without exception or discrimination and to promote human rights. This study showed that educational settings must be transformed so that students may express their own values without being judged. Arts-based techniques like creative drama have a great potential to achieve this goal. Therefore, social work education should benefit from creative and critical ways to prepare students for the profession, which aims to protect the value of humans.