Date of Award

1-1-2019

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Sociology

Content Description

1 online resource (iii, 376 pages)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Steven Seidman

Committee Members

Richard Lachmann, Ronald Jacobs

Keywords

Cultural Analysis, Narrative, Political Islam, Turkey, Islam and politics

Subject Categories

Sociology

Abstract

This study examines the shifting meaning of the ‘West’ within the Islamic discourse in Turkey from 1987 to 2005. In the last two decades, Turkish Islamists have renounced their longstanding anti-western rhetoric; adopted a language of democracy and human rights; and commenced to support Turkey’s membership bid in the European Union. The question of how to make sense of this dramatic transformation of Islamic political culture will frame the main discussion in this study. The proposed study argues that the existing academic and popular explanations of this transformation are inadequate in that they privilege instrumental models such as rational actor model and political opportunity structure at the expense of a strong cultural explanation.

Included in

Sociology Commons

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