Why Is America Interested in Islam in Turkey?”

Fieldwork and Problems of Gaining Trust in a Low-Trust Society

Bibliographic Data

ID8970754
AuthorsZeynep Ozgen (0000-0002-4329-7823, New York University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume56
Issue1
Pages120-126
Publication date2024-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal Middle East Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-7438 • E-ISSN: 1471-6380
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0020743824000205
OpenAlexW4392813437
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited10

When researchers think of access disruptions, they tend to think of factors exogenous to a field site, those emerging from nationwide events or global crises. Especially in semiauthoritarian contexts, such as Turkey, where ongoing historical contestations (over human rights, minority rights, and freedom of expression) as well as current political polarizations have created a volatile institutional and social environment, ethnographers are more likely to find their fieldwork disrupted. In this essay, I draw attention to a different kind of disruption, one that arises from the endogenous character of the local field site. In particular, I discuss the impact of low interpersonal trust on fieldwork. While gaining access and establishing trust are universal challenges in ethnographic research, the issue is particularly a formidable one in Turkey

Archaeology · Islam · Political science · Sociology · History · Islamic Studies and History · Religion and Society Interactions · Turkey's Politics and Society

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