A Convergence of Rival Ideologies: The Sociological and Organizational Structures of Anti-labour Politics in Turkey

?erif Mardin, one of Turkey's most prominent sociologists, recently stated that ‘there is a deep silence about the working class in Turkey'. This article will try to analyse the factors that cause this ‘deep silence', which, paradoxically, is observed even by the competing Kemalist and Islamic political actors. In other words, the ‘deep silence' refers to the common perspective on the working class of the otherwise different and competing groups. This can be called their solidaristic view, the purpose of which is essentially to provide solidarity among government officials, merchants and peasants that eventually formed the basis of European corporatism. Although it outlines the historical manifestation of the solidarist view, this paper focuses particularly on how Islamic actors maintain that view. This is a problem that requires the examination of various factors around a key question. How is it that competing groups are in harmony in the matter of their ideological positions on the working class?     

Restoring a Lost Identity: Models of Education in Modern Islamic Thought

Education occupied a central position in modern Islamic thought. It aimed at purifying faith, but also at nurturing activism in the service of Islam and the community. Education was required to be holistic, strengthening both soul and body. It embraced all aspects of life and was conveyed by diverse means, ranging from communal involvement to political revolution. The broad scope of this education was impelled by the comprehensiveness of the Islamic religion, but also by the multifaceted nature of Westernization itself. The corrupting presence of hedonistic culture backed by indigenous regimes heightened the functional aspect of the pedagogic realm in Islamic discourse more than ever before. Re-education was perceived as the main lever for achieving cultural authenticity and as a core component of identity politics. The paper offers a contextualized reading of education in Islamic thought, an issue largely overlooked in the scholarly literature, which has focused more on socio-political aspects of the modern Islamic revival.     

Filling In the Missing Link Between Universalism and Democracy: The Case of Costa Rica

This article explores a missing link in the recent literature on the formation of social policies: that between democracy and universalism, one desirable yet elusive feature of these policies. We base our argument on a case study of Costa Rica, the most successful case of universalism in Latin America. We proceed by first depicting Costa Rica's peculiar policy architecture, based on the incremental expansion of benefits funded on payroll taxes. Then we reconstruct the policy process to stress the key role played by technopoliticians in a democratic context. Backed by political leadership and equipped with international ideas, technopoliticians drove social policy design from agenda setting to adoption and implementation. Third, we argue that key aspects of the policy architecture established in the early 1940s were fundamental building blocks for a distinctive and seldom explored road to universalism. We conclude considering contemporary implications.     

The burden of Sisyphus: a sociological inventory of the Kurdish question in Turkey

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the contradictory transformation process the Kurdish movement has been experiencing over the last two decades and discusses its structural paradoxes and political shortcomings from a critical sociological perspective. Based on participant observation and interviews with activist researchers, the paper argues that the moral and ideological unity of the movement is challenged by ever-increasing social and mental divisions that are in turn prompted by forced displacement, rapid urbanization and diversified forms of social and symbolic inequalities within the Kurdish society. The fundamental division is between the emerging educated middle-class subjectivity, which has become the prime intellectual force leading the democratic political institutions, and the socially impoverished and radicalized urban youth, who have been active in contentious politics. This social division manifests within the dual organizational structures of the movement as twin and frequently contradictory dispositions. This schism also prevents the movement from building a much broader popular subjectivity to decolonize the social and political life.     

Turkey and Iran: limits of a stable relationship

Throughout the twentieth century, Turkey and Iran have enjoyed peaceful, if not always cordial relations. The Cold War strategic orientations of these two neighbours solidified that relationship. The Iranian Revolution posed the first major challenge to the stability of the Turco‐Iranian relations. However, throughout the 1980s Turkish and Iranian officials adroitly managed their differences, though they did not succeed in resolving them. During the 1990s, the pressures and polarities impinging upon Turco‐Iranian relations have both multiplied and intensified. Ranging from the exertion of US influence on Turkey, to the changing political dynamics in Turkey and Iran, Turco‐Iranian relations today rest on unsteady ground. Although the exact course which Turco‐Iranian relations will take remains unclear, there is reason to be concerned about its current state. For, to a significant degree, the stability and prosperity of the Middle East region depends to a significant degree on maintaining the stability of Turco‐Iranian relations.     

Islam and economics in the political sphere: a critical evaluation of the AKP era in Turkey

ABSTRACT

Since Weber’s articulate conceptualisation of the nexus between religion and economics, these phenomena have been examined through various academic viewpoints. While some take religion as a determining factor of economic performance, others argue that it is the economy that influences religiosity. This paper focuses on the manifestation of religion and economics in the political sphere regarding the case of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). After discussing the literature on the relations between religion and economics, it scrutinises the AKP period, considering three specific pillars: (a) the early years of the AKP in which Western economic policies were implemented as a continuation of the Kemal Dervi? period; (b) between 2008 and 2015, when the idea ‘we can do as well’ maintained the centre stage; and (c) 2015 and onwards, when the Islamist influence on economic policy became highly apparent, particularly regarding interest rates. This study argues that the AKP changed politically in terms of Islamic influence upon the economic sphere, however this remains at the discursive level for the time being.     

当今日本社会离婚现象透视

日本作为一个东方国家,深受儒家思想影响,有着一套传统的家族制度体系。但是自20世纪90年代以来,日本社会的离婚率持续攀高,甚至超过某些发达的资本主义国家,成为离婚大国。当今日本社会的离婚,呈现出数量多、年龄段偏高、女性占主导地位等一些新的特点。离婚热的出现,不再只是一个孤立的社会现象,它对个人、家庭乃至整个社会都有着直接的影响,由此引发出一系列的家庭和社会问题。针对这一现象,日本政府和民间组织纷纷行动起来,期望人们能够慎重对待婚姻,降低离婚率,从而稳定家庭与社会。