From Work to Leisure: ”Transforming Kitchen Spaces, Technologies, and Practices in Türkiye, 1930s-2020s.”

Abstract

Kitchens are more than functional spaces; they reflect and shape cultural values, technologies, and ideals of modern life. Framing the kitchen as an orchestrating concept that brings together images, materials, and competencies, this article examines how idealized settings and tools have produced shifting narratives of modernity and redefined meanings, functions, and everyday practices in Türkiye from the 1930s to the present. It highlights the transformation of the kitchen from a moralizing space to one of entertainment and creativity across three eras: the ordered workshop of the 1930s, the cozy living room of the 1970s, and the technological hub of the 2000s. Drawing on archival research from a larger project on the social history of domestic technologies in Türkiye, the article analyzes newspapers, magazines, TV commercials, social media, and films to reveal how domestic ideals have been negotiated through kitchen spaces. © 2025 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.