Urban Happiness and Gardening Relationship: The Case of Ankara Capital

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.