M Akan
Biographic Data
| ID | 15181 |
|---|---|
| NAME | M Akan |
| GIVEN NAMES | M |
| FAMILY NAME | Akan |
| SIGNATURE | AKAN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Bogaziçi University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6882-1732 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2003 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A confiscated trajectory of secularism: Revisiting the critical case of Turkey
One mark of the rising research field of secularism and religion is that the field itself moved from area studies towards mainstream social science. This move can be traced through the increasing significance of Turkey. Turkey’s AKP was presented as a liberal and moderate challenge to radical Kemalist secularism in Turkish Studies, then analytical pillars of research in comparative politics and political theory relied on this presentation. After …
The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization. By H. Zeynep Bulutgil
Journal Article The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization. By H. Zeynep Bulutgil Get access The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization. By H. Zeynep Bulutgil. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 205pp. $29.95 paper. Murat Akan Murat Akan Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of C…
Do we need a radical redefinition of secularism? A critique of Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor's “radical redefinition of secularism” has a significant place in the post-9/11 research on secularism. He replaces secularism's “old” paradigm, separation between state and religious institutions, with a “new” one, responding to diversity. Taylor appeals to French laïcité in-itself as the old paradigm. With an analysis of the parliamentary debates at the institutional origins of the old paradigm in the Third French Republic, this …
Floating Sophia, Polarizing to Abeyance, Waqf-izing the State
The 2020 ‘mosque-ing’ of Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) shook a cornerstone of the Turkish Republican tradition. I lay out the immediate political context, including the COVID -19 pandemic, the content of five court decisions that built up to the mosque-ing, and what these show about the current state of secularism, democracy and institutions in Turkey. I argue that the Ayasofya episode is a case of polarization to the point of abeyance and waqf-izing t…
The Politics of Secularism: Religion, Diversity, and Institutional Change in France and Turkey
Discussions of modernity—or alternative and multiple modernities—often hinge on the question of secularism, especially how it travels outside its original European context. Too often, attempts to answer this question either imagine a universal model derived from the history of Western Europe, which neglects the experience of much of the world, or emphasize a local, non-European context that limits the potential for comparison. In The Politics of …
Diversité: Challenging or constituting laïcité
The debates on laïcité in France have been capped by a claim that French cultural imaginary laïcité has reasserted itself against the ‘new challenge of diversity’, this new challenge explicitly being contrasted to the old challenge of the Catholic Church. There have been plenty of references to the French Third Republic during these debates, yet these references fail to recognise that in fact the concept of diversité was part of the discussions o…
Looking beyond ‘imaginary’ analytics and hermeneutics in comparative politics
Multiple modernities has emerged as the post-Huntingtonian paradigm in the study of secularism and religion, and the concepts ‘imaginary’ or ‘ verstehen’ are the most common candidates guiding research aiming to articulate this multiplicity. This article revisits Shmuel Eisenstadt’s original ‘Multiple Modernities’ thesis, Charles Taylor’s concept ‘imaginary’ and Max Weber’s ‘ verstehen’, and offers concise examples on how they are put into practi…
Umut Azak. Islam and Secularism in Turkey: Kemalism, Religion and the Nation State. London: I.B. Tauris, 2010, xv + 234 pages
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Infrastructural Politics of Lai̇kli̇k in the Writing of the 1961 Turkish Constitution
The current state of the literature on the institutions regulating the relation between state and religion in Turkey is limited to the question of finding a better description of the Turkish case in a comparative perspective. Instead of offering an alternative comparative conceptualization of state and religion relations in Turkey, this essay focuses on political actors’ use of comparative conceptualizations in the writing of the 1961 Constitutio…
Laïcité and multiculturalism: The Stasi Report in context1
French republican universalism - expressed most strongly in the principle and practice oflaïcité- and multiculturalism have constituted opposite poles on questions of citizenship and integration. The report of the Stasi Commission onlaïcitéon 11 December 2003 and the following legislation on the donning of religious symbols in French public schools have once again, spurred debates over the meanings and practices oflaïcité. The report and the law …
Contextualizing multiculturalism
Laïcité and multiculturalism: The Stasi Report in context1
French republican universalism - expressed most strongly in the principle and practice oflaïcité- and multiculturalism have constituted opposite poles on questions of citizenship and integration. The report of the Stasi Commission onlaïcitéon 11 December 2003 and the following legislation on the donning of religious symbols in French public schools have once again, spurred debates over the meanings and practices oflaïcité. The report and the law …
Diversité: Challenging or constituting laïcité
The debates on laïcité in France have been capped by a claim that French cultural imaginary laïcité has reasserted itself against the ‘new challenge of diversity’, this new challenge explicitly being contrasted to the old challenge of the Catholic Church. There have been plenty of references to the French Third Republic during these debates, yet these references fail to recognise that in fact the concept of diversité was part of the discussions o…
A confiscated trajectory of secularism: Revisiting the critical case of Turkey
One mark of the rising research field of secularism and religion is that the field itself moved from area studies towards mainstream social science. This move can be traced through the increasing significance of Turkey. Turkey’s AKP was presented as a liberal and moderate challenge to radical Kemalist secularism in Turkish Studies, then analytical pillars of research in comparative politics and political theory relied on this presentation. After …
Contextualizing multiculturalism
Laïcité and multiculturalism: The Stasi Report in context1
French republican universalism - expressed most strongly in the principle and practice oflaïcité- and multiculturalism have constituted opposite poles on questions of citizenship and integration. The report of the Stasi Commission onlaïcitéon 11 December 2003 and the following legislation on the donning of religious symbols in French public schools have once again, spurred debates over the meanings and practices oflaïcité. The report and the law …
The Infrastructural Politics of Lai̇kli̇k in the Writing of the 1961 Turkish Constitution
The current state of the literature on the institutions regulating the relation between state and religion in Turkey is limited to the question of finding a better description of the Turkish case in a comparative perspective. Instead of offering an alternative comparative conceptualization of state and religion relations in Turkey, this essay focuses on political actors’ use of comparative conceptualizations in the writing of the 1961 Constitutio…
Umut Azak. Islam and Secularism in Turkey: Kemalism, Religion and the Nation State. London: I.B. Tauris, 2010, xv + 234 pages
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Politics of Secularism: Religion, Diversity, and Institutional Change in France and Turkey
Discussions of modernity—or alternative and multiple modernities—often hinge on the question of secularism, especially how it travels outside its original European context. Too often, attempts to answer this question either imagine a universal model derived from the history of Western Europe, which neglects the experience of much of the world, or emphasize a local, non-European context that limits the potential for comparison. In The Politics of …
Diversité: Challenging or constituting laïcité
The debates on laïcité in France have been capped by a claim that French cultural imaginary laïcité has reasserted itself against the ‘new challenge of diversity’, this new challenge explicitly being contrasted to the old challenge of the Catholic Church. There have been plenty of references to the French Third Republic during these debates, yet these references fail to recognise that in fact the concept of diversité was part of the discussions o…
Looking beyond ‘imaginary’ analytics and hermeneutics in comparative politics
Multiple modernities has emerged as the post-Huntingtonian paradigm in the study of secularism and religion, and the concepts ‘imaginary’ or ‘ verstehen’ are the most common candidates guiding research aiming to articulate this multiplicity. This article revisits Shmuel Eisenstadt’s original ‘Multiple Modernities’ thesis, Charles Taylor’s concept ‘imaginary’ and Max Weber’s ‘ verstehen’, and offers concise examples on how they are put into practi…
Floating Sophia, Polarizing to Abeyance, Waqf-izing the State
The 2020 ‘mosque-ing’ of Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) shook a cornerstone of the Turkish Republican tradition. I lay out the immediate political context, including the COVID -19 pandemic, the content of five court decisions that built up to the mosque-ing, and what these show about the current state of secularism, democracy and institutions in Turkey. I argue that the Ayasofya episode is a case of polarization to the point of abeyance and waqf-izing t…
A confiscated trajectory of secularism: Revisiting the critical case of Turkey
One mark of the rising research field of secularism and religion is that the field itself moved from area studies towards mainstream social science. This move can be traced through the increasing significance of Turkey. Turkey’s AKP was presented as a liberal and moderate challenge to radical Kemalist secularism in Turkish Studies, then analytical pillars of research in comparative politics and political theory relied on this presentation. After …
The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization. By H. Zeynep Bulutgil
Journal Article The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization. By H. Zeynep Bulutgil Get access The Origins of Secular Institutions: Ideas, Timing, and Organization. By H. Zeynep Bulutgil. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022. 205pp. $29.95 paper. Murat Akan Murat Akan Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey E-mail: [email protected] Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of C…
Do we need a radical redefinition of secularism? A critique of Charles Taylor
Charles Taylor's “radical redefinition of secularism” has a significant place in the post-9/11 research on secularism. He replaces secularism's “old” paradigm, separation between state and religious institutions, with a “new” one, responding to diversity. Taylor appeals to French laïcité in-itself as the old paradigm. With an analysis of the parliamentary debates at the institutional origins of the old paradigm in the Third French Republic, this …
Political science (10 works) · Religion and Society Interactions (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · Secularism (6 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Epistemology (4 works)