Abstract Current political discourse places a heavy emphasis on thinking big and working hard as ways for children to overcome structural barriers in life. Inspired by this discourse, this research explores the formation of aspirations, based on qualitative research, among adolescents in middle school from different socio-economic statuses in Ankara, Turkey. It contributes to the overall aspiration literature in the world by unpacking the process and the scope of aspiration formation; to the limited available research on adolescent aspirations in Turkey; and to adolescent policy development by proposing recommendations to better support adolescents in pursuing their aspirations. Findings show that adolescents from different socio-economic backgrounds have very different aspirations for their futures, which are reflective of their backgrounds in a stratified society. Adolescents with high socio-economic status aspire to have a luxurious life, whereas their peers with middle socio-economic status are more interested in building families, and their peers with low socio-economic status are focused on living a life different than what they currently live, from which they can also save their family. All adolescents focus on accumulating cultural capital as a way to realize these aspirations. Exposing adolescents to different alternatives may enrich what they look for, but what they aspire to see will remain stratified unless the inequalities among adolescents are addressed. As long as the externality they live in is stratified, their habitus will act as a convener for social stratification. A holistic understanding of aspirations, which goes beyond occupations, and a multi-dimensional support mechanism is required for the aspirations to be a useful tool to lower the consistency of the social stratification system.

中文翻译：

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大胆思考并向上移动？青少年抱负的社会经济

摘要 当前的政治话语非常强调以远大的眼光和努力工作作为儿童克服生活结构性障碍的方法。受此话语的启发，本研究基于定性研究，探讨了土耳其安卡拉不同社会经济地位的中学青少年的志向形成情况。通过解开愿望形成的过程和范围，它为世界上的整体愿望文献做出了贡献；对土耳其青少年愿望的有限可用研究；并通过提出建议来更好地支持青少年追求他们的愿望，从而促进青少年政策的制定。调查结果表明，来自不同社会经济背景的青少年对自己的未来有着非常不同的期望，这反映了他们在分层社会中的背景。社会经济地位高的青少年渴望奢侈的生活，社会经济地位中等的青少年更热衷于建立家庭，社会经济地位低的青少年更注重过着与现在不同的生活生活，他们也可以从中拯救他们的家人。所有青少年都专注于积累文化资本，以此来实现这些愿望。让青少年接触不同的选择可能会丰富他们寻找的东西，但除非解决青少年之间的不平等问题，否则他们渴望看到的东西仍将是分层的。只要他们所生活的外部性是分层的，他们的习性就会成为社会分层的召集者。对愿望的全面理解，