Schooling the ‘Desired Citizen’
Analysing the Kemalist Project of Subject Formation in Early Republican Turkey Through a Foucauldian Lens
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21678321 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Monalisa Dash (0009-0007-9687-5256, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi), Asif Haseen (0009-0007-4893-5605, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Issue | 78 |
| Pages | 64-85 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-31 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ankara Üniversitesi Türk İnkılap Tarihi Enstitüsü Atatürk Yolu Dergisi (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1303-5290 • E-ISSN: 2667-7768 |
| Publisher | Ankara University (PUBLISHER • FR) |
| DOI | 10.46955/ankuayd.1881139 |
| OpenAlex | W7162854089 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
The establishment of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 marked a departure from the Ottoman imperial order and initiated an ambitious project of nation-building. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the new regime sought to redefine the foundations of political authority by moving away from the Ottoman-Islamic past and its institutions towards reshaping the relationship between religion, society, and politics. It necessitated the formation of a new identity of the ‘social’ and the ‘citizenry,’ aligning with the ideals of the new Republic. The existing scholarship has largely interpreted Kemalist reforms through the lenses of secularization, modernization, and authoritarian state-building. However, this article adopts a Foucauldian approach to examine how the Kemalist state reforms represent a ‘governmentality’ project aimed at producing the ‘desired’ citizens for the modern world. Therefore, this article analyzes how state-led initiatives in schooling, language reform, dress, religious administration, and public rituals promoted specific ways of thinking, behaving, and belonging. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s concept of governmentality, this study focuses on the everyday practices of governance, moving beyond normative judgements of Kemalism. To this end, this study follows a historical and qualitative analysis based on primary resources such as legislative documents, memoirs, and newspaper archives, as well as secondary literature
Authoritarianism · Legislature · Normative · Politics · Scholarship · Historical Turkish Studies · Public Administration and Governance · Turkey's Politics and Society
The Subject and Power
Goffman and Foucault
Naming and Nation-building in Turkey
The Development of Secularism in Turkey
Powers of Freedom
State Feminism, Modernization, and the Turkish Republican Woman
Islamism and nationalism
Politics, identity and religious nationalism in Turkey
Foucault and Familial Power
Feminism and feminist movements in the middle east, a preliminary exploration
The radical transformations and deep continuities of a decade
Ordered liberty and disciplined freedom
Language Policy and Official Ideology in Early Republican Turkey
The Chomsky-Foucault Debate
| Highly cited | No |
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