Through ethnographic and archival research conducted in Istanbul and Izmir, this article examines the dynamics and regulation of charitable giving in contemporary Turkey. The article is based on interviews I conducted with the volunteers, employees, and aid recipients of three civil society organizations that rely on charitable giving to fund their projects, which center on helping the poor and providing aid during and after wars and other disasters. I document how religious ideals of anonymous charitable giving for the sake of giving, without expectation of return, are closely intertwined with anxiety over finding a worthy charitable association and recipient. In doing so, I focus on vakıf as both a concept and a practice that gives meaning to charitable giving in Turkey. The increasing desire to document, define, and categorize the deserving poor as a way to justify the intent to give and to receive goes against the anonymity and immediacy of giving, thus riddling intent with ethical contradictions. I argue that attention needs to be paid to the intent, practice, and various forms of giving, and not just to the effects and outcomes of charity.

Situating the Turkish carpet‐weaving industry within the historical and political context of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), this study concentrates on male carpet manufacturers in Konya, Turkey. It explores how their divergent and at times awkward articulations of successful entrepreneurship affect and are affected by local labor conditions and relationships. The efforts of carpet manufacturers to achieve entrepreneurial flexibility have both liberating and constraining effects, demonstrating that the meanings and practices some researchers ascribe to the market economy and flexibility cannot be understood if disengaged from the particulars of culture.

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