Alternative Suggestions to Flexibility and Deregulation Policies on Enhancement of Interactive Relation between Growth and Employment in Turkey (original) (raw)

Conceptualizing Islamic Movements: The Case of Turkey

International Political Science Review, 2009

The September 11 atrocities have brought Islamic movements to the focus of world media and academic discussions on an unforeseen scale. However, not only the media reports but most academic discussions have confused the reason with the results in their studies. Sociological analyses suggested that these movements arise not solely on religious grounds or based on the 'hatred of the Western civilization', but as a response to diverse socio-economic and political conditions that are being aggravated by rapid urbanisation and globalisation processes. In order to shed light on the way in which Islamic movements emerge and raise the case of Turkish Islamic movement will be analyzed. Key words: Islamic movements, globalization, neoliberlism, grassroots activism, rapid urbanization.

The ‘Harmonization’ of Islam with the Neoliberal Transformation: The Case of Turkey

2014

The end of the Cold War brought about a great uncertainty in relation to the geopolitical order. The prevalence of this neoliberal model of development had as a prerequisite the integration of countries other than the traditionally developed and powerful nations of the West. As a consequence, the developing or the less economically developed economies were the ones appearing to acquire 'renewed' importance. A fundamental aspect of these repercussions was the triggering of ideological debates over the compatibility of Islam with this stage of capitalist development. One major axon of these debates was the 'desecularization' of capitalist modernization and the integration of Islam in the new global order. This article examines the case of Turkey in this framework. It analyses how the 'Conservative Democracy' programme of the Justice and Development Party is 'harmonizing' Islam with the transformation of the country and how this transformation is presented with 'local colours', being more acceptable and creating the new hegemony in Turkey.

Islamic Neoliberalism and Its Discontents

Progress in Political Economy, 2019

Most commentators on Turkey mark 2013 as a turning point in terms of the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) transition from a liberal, democratic, and 'yet' pro-Islamic government to a more heavy-handed and authoritarian one. Even in 2010-12, the AKP was praised by some in the mainstream-liberal intelligentsia as a transformative and progressive power that would consolidate democratic values and civil liberties. However, in June 2013, following the Gezi Uprising which started in Istanbul's Taksim Square, the AKP abandoned its progressive role and transformed into a regressive power that rules the country in a more authoritarian manner. The same mainstream-liberal intellectuals then began to question whether the AKP's leader, then-Prime Minister R. T. Erdoğan, is a dictator or not. Such a transformation surprised many and brought both the Gezi Uprising and the AKP under close scrutiny. Gamze Yücesan-Özdemir's edited volume, The Road to Gezi, offers a critical and alternative reading of the Gezi Uprising and it challenges not only the myth of 2013, as the year Erdoğan had turned into an authoritarian leader, but also the hegemonic Islamistsecularist divide as the main reason of the upheaval. In this collection, the contributors collectively argue that the Gezi Uprising did not happen precipitously. Rather, it originated from various working-class movements and different resistance practices of multiple social forces (e.g. women's movements, student movements, movements against urban transformation, social media activism, new forms of journalism, and protests of both blueand white-collar workers). Notably, another anthology was edited by Gamze Yücesan-Özdemir and Simten Coşar and published by the same publisher in 2012. Entitled Silent Violence: Neoliberalism, Islamist Politics and the AKP Years in Turkey, it argued that the articulation of Islamist politics with neoliberal capitalism that defines AKP rule should be understood as the basis of transformation within neoliberal capitalism involving various forms of suppression and exploitation along axes of class, race, and gender. A combined reading of these two volumes provides an original, unique and challenging overview of the political economy of contemporary Turkey since the AKP came into power in 2002.

Debating Islamism Modernity and the West in Turkey Welfare Party.pdf

The Book avaiable through most library systems: (LC Class No.): JQ1809.A8 R4435 2018 {detailed information is in the papers section} (This book is a shortened and simplified version of my PhD thesis, completed in the autumn of 2005, and not updated after 2007 or so. https://www.savaskitap.com/Cengiz-Dinc\_ar\_3223) This study focuses on the Welfare Party elite’s conceptualisation of modernity during the party’s last 4-5 years before its closure in 1998. Since the party was the most important Islamist organisation in Turkey, it was at an important point of interaction between Islamism and modernity. The study tries to determine the significance of the WP discourse on key modernisation issues by answering such questions as how the WP elite conceptualised modernity; how this conceptualisation was formulated, constructed and what was modernity’s relationship with the West in their view. It argues that, the WP elite had a distinct (Islamist) understanding of modernity which, despite its differences in its approach to some basic issues (e.g. secularism) overall remained within modernity by sharing most of its major characteristics. The WP elite, similar to many other Islamist movements, advocated a more Islamic (less secular and less Westernising) route to modernity; and they could not be considered as anti-modernists. The study contributes towards a better understanding of the critical role that a version of Islamism plays in Turkey’s politics and process of modernisation and provides insights about the impact of Western modernity on the sizeable Islamist section. The study employs important concepts such as secularisation, nationalism, the modern state, economic development (science, technology, industrialisation), capitalism and democracy as important components of modernity. An analysis of the views of the WP elite with regard to these concepts and processes serves to better understanding the Islamist stance towards the particular path of modernisation in Turkey, modernity in general, and also the West.