Mustafa Yavaş

Mustafa Yavaş

Sociologist

I am a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Economy and Society at Johns Hopkins University. I study economic sociology from a cultural, historical, and global perspective, grappling with longstanding questions about the division of labor and well-being, the dynamics of social and symbolic boundaries, and the feedback loop between individual (inter)actions and durable, large-scale structures. In addressing these questions, I strive for analytical clarity and use various methods as necessary, including interviews, ethnography, computational text analysis, network analysis, and simulations. Empirically, my research has centered on upper-middle-class, professional-managerial workers of prestigious firms—a social stratum I find ripe for sociological insights. You can read more about my research here

Interests
  • Economic Sociology
  • Work & Occupations
  • High-Skilled Migration
  • Social Networks
  • Sociological Theory
Education

  • PhD in Sociology, 2020

    Yale University

  • MSc in Industrial Engineering, 2015

    Boğaziçi University

  • BSc in Industrial Engineering, 2011

    Boğaziçi University

White-Collar Blues
The Making of the Transnational Turkish Middle Class

White-Collar Blues examines the rise of a new Turkish upper-middle class and its discontent with work. During the developmentalist era of the 1960s-70s, state-employed doctors, lawyers, and engineers were seen as role models for “making it.” However, with Turkey’s tighter integration into the global economy, the neoliberalism of the post-1980s introduced professional-managerial employees of transnational corporations as the new symbols of success. Focusing on their quality of working life narratives through more than 100 interviews held in Istanbul and New York, I follow these elite workers as they are selected into, survive within, and opt out of corporate careers. Despite their upward mobility, many professionals’ narratives resonate with what I call white-collar blues: burnout and disappointment with demanding yet unfulfilling careers. Extending from the Turkish case, I develop a theory of middle-class alienation that accounts for how middle-class investments in education lead to high hopes, which then clash with the realities of poor work-life balance, low intrinsic satisfaction, and a felt lack of meaning from labor. White-Collar Blues reveals the hidden costs of seeking higher pay and status.

Articles

Work in Progress

  • “Not White, But Still White-Collar: Non-Western Expatriates’ Boundary Work in the United Arab Emirates,” with Anju M. Paul and Sejin Park. (Draft available)
  • “Feeling at Home in the Global City: Dubai’s Appeal for Non-Western Expatriates,” with Anju M. Paul and Sejin Park. (Draft available)
  • “Visualizing Career Funneling in Top US Universities, 1994 to 2024,” with Amy Binder and Daniel Davis. (Draft available)
  • “Unwinding Career Trajectories: The Aftermath of College-to-Work Transitions in Elite US Higher Education,” with Amy Binder and Daniel Davis. (Data analysis)
  • “Productivity vs. Well-Being: Managerial Discourse on Job Quality and Corporate Work Culture in the US, 1922-2025.” (Data wrangling)
  • “What Do We Mean by ‘Consent’?” (Data collection)

Teaching Experience

The Certificate in College Teaching Preparation from Yale’s Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning, Fall 2019 (granted upon completion of a comprehensive training in effective teaching)

INSTRUCTOR

  • Johns Hopkins University, Center for Economy and Society at SNF Agora Institute

    • AS.197.330 Social Networks, Fall 2025, Fall 2026

  • New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Research and Public Policy

    • SOCSC-UH 1310 Foundations of Modern Social Thought, Fall 2023, Spring 2024

  • Yale University, Department of Sociology

    • SOC 167S Social Networks and Society, Summer 2019

TEACHING FELLOW

  • Johns Hopkins University, Center for Economy and Society at SNF Agora Institute

    • AS.197.101 Social Theories of the Economy I, Fall 2024
    • AS.197.102 Social Theories of the Economy II, Spring 2025, Spring 2026

  • Yale University, Department of Sociology

    • SOC 160 Methods of Inquiry, Spring 2019
    • SOC 256 Advertising, Consumption and Society, Spring 2017
    • SOC 167 Social Networks and Society, Fall 2016
    • SOC 232 Islamic Social Movements, Spring 2016
    • SOC 151 Foundations of Modern Social Theory, Fall 2015

  • Yale University, School of Management

    • MGT 421E Innovator’s Perspective, Spring 2020 (EMBA course)
    • MGT 665 Principles of Entrepreneurship, Fall 2019 (MBA course)

  • Gateway Community College

    • SOC 665 Principles of Sociology, Spring 2020

  • Bogazici University, Industrial Engineering

    • IE 48F Agent-Based Modeling, Spring 2013
    • IE 533 Systems Theory, Fall 2012 (Graduate)
    • IE 306 System Simulation, Spring 2012