Fethi Acikel | Ankara University (original) (raw)
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University of the Basque Country, Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea
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Papers by Fethi Acikel
https://iletisim.com.tr/kitap/kutsal-mazlumluk-tan-makyavelist-despotizm-e/10381
European Societies, 2011
This paper deals with the ambivalent position of Turkish nationalism vis-à-vis the Alevi ethno-re... more This paper deals with the ambivalent position of Turkish nationalism vis-à-vis the Alevi ethno-religious identity. The Alevi are the largest ethno-religious minority in Turkey. Via a critical pluralist stance, the authors argue that the debates revolving around the origins and nature of the Alevi identity disclose the cultural –and, to a lesser extent, romantic – characteristics of Turkish nationalism and its relative inability to accommodate a fully civic and pluralist notion of national identity. The paper argues that the Alevi question is one of the litmus tests that reveal Turkish nationalism's uneasiness with adopting the idea of an ethno-religiously plural society. Two hegemonic branches of Turkish nationalism conceptualize the Alevi identity through ethno-cultural and religio-cultural lenses. This leads to the Alevi being coded as ‘ambivalent citizens’. This ambivalent status creates a bifurcated yet intertwined process of belonging and non-belonging, authenticity and stigmatization. The paper argues that the unremitting oscillation between the status of ‘genuine self-ness’ and ‘heretical otherness’ discloses the very non-civic and cultural foundations of Turkish nationalism.
Journal of Historical Sociology, 2006
Abstract The comparative studies of world religions have been a distinctive part of Western thou... more Abstract The comparative studies of world religions have been a distinctive part of Western thought. Hegel's contribution to the philosophy of history is most clearly seen where he introduces a theory of historical development based on the secularisation of Christian cosmology. With Hegel, the Spirit (Geist), previously theologically understood, gradually becomes the embodiment of historical development. In the Hegelian vocabulary, the phenomenology of religion is formulated along with the theory of historical progress. In this article, I will argue that the question of historical development has been continuously elaborated in a culturalist fashion in works of Friedrich Hegel, Max Weber and Samuel Huntington as those scholars, through different intellectual traditions, essentialises the spiritual backgrounds of world religions and ties the phenomenology of religion with the philosophy of history in their historical analyses. This paper will argue that these scholars, by relying on the idealised images of religions and particularly of the Occidental Spirit, subtly elaborate the historical culturalist notion of development within Western thought. By arguing for an inherent link between religion and development, these scholars implicitly institutionalize a Eurocentric understanding of Western Christianity and the Occidental path of development within mainstream social theory. Be they philosophical (Hegel), sociological (Weber) or political (Huntington), the historical culturalism of these approaches shape our understanding of historical change, and ironically, instead of countering the excesses of crude materialism, they lead social theory into a form of Eurocentic historical culturalism.
https://iletisim.com.tr/kitap/kutsal-mazlumluk-tan-makyavelist-despotizm-e/10381
European Societies, 2011
This paper deals with the ambivalent position of Turkish nationalism vis-à-vis the Alevi ethno-re... more This paper deals with the ambivalent position of Turkish nationalism vis-à-vis the Alevi ethno-religious identity. The Alevi are the largest ethno-religious minority in Turkey. Via a critical pluralist stance, the authors argue that the debates revolving around the origins and nature of the Alevi identity disclose the cultural –and, to a lesser extent, romantic – characteristics of Turkish nationalism and its relative inability to accommodate a fully civic and pluralist notion of national identity. The paper argues that the Alevi question is one of the litmus tests that reveal Turkish nationalism's uneasiness with adopting the idea of an ethno-religiously plural society. Two hegemonic branches of Turkish nationalism conceptualize the Alevi identity through ethno-cultural and religio-cultural lenses. This leads to the Alevi being coded as ‘ambivalent citizens’. This ambivalent status creates a bifurcated yet intertwined process of belonging and non-belonging, authenticity and stigmatization. The paper argues that the unremitting oscillation between the status of ‘genuine self-ness’ and ‘heretical otherness’ discloses the very non-civic and cultural foundations of Turkish nationalism.
Journal of Historical Sociology, 2006
Abstract The comparative studies of world religions have been a distinctive part of Western thou... more Abstract The comparative studies of world religions have been a distinctive part of Western thought. Hegel's contribution to the philosophy of history is most clearly seen where he introduces a theory of historical development based on the secularisation of Christian cosmology. With Hegel, the Spirit (Geist), previously theologically understood, gradually becomes the embodiment of historical development. In the Hegelian vocabulary, the phenomenology of religion is formulated along with the theory of historical progress. In this article, I will argue that the question of historical development has been continuously elaborated in a culturalist fashion in works of Friedrich Hegel, Max Weber and Samuel Huntington as those scholars, through different intellectual traditions, essentialises the spiritual backgrounds of world religions and ties the phenomenology of religion with the philosophy of history in their historical analyses. This paper will argue that these scholars, by relying on the idealised images of religions and particularly of the Occidental Spirit, subtly elaborate the historical culturalist notion of development within Western thought. By arguing for an inherent link between religion and development, these scholars implicitly institutionalize a Eurocentric understanding of Western Christianity and the Occidental path of development within mainstream social theory. Be they philosophical (Hegel), sociological (Weber) or political (Huntington), the historical culturalism of these approaches shape our understanding of historical change, and ironically, instead of countering the excesses of crude materialism, they lead social theory into a form of Eurocentic historical culturalism.