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Understanding Influence in the Muslim Intellectual Space in Contemporary Turkey
Abstract by Deniz Ilhan On Session 195  (Modernizing Hegemony and Discourse)

On Saturday, November 17 at 5:30 pm

2018 Annual Meeting

Abstract
The paper builds on the sociology of intellectuals, knowledge, and ideas, while incorporating the insight of the multi-disciplinary area studies on the Middle Eastern-Muslim intellectual space, and particularly modern Turkey. The paper draws attention to how religion as a domain of "authoritative knowledge" has been largely overlooked in the Western sociology of intellectual space and argues why political-historical context and cultural geography need to be taken into account for explaining the development of intellectual space in particular contexts. In an effort to communicate these literatures further, the paper builds on the Bourdieusian notion of "intellectual field," and argues that both the relational and substantive components of "intellectual capital" in the contemporary Muslim intellectual space in Turkey will define the influence of the agents in it. In terms of its empirical approach, the paper focuses on two intellectual organizations founded by Muslims and Muslim scholars in Turkey, namely "Bilim ve Sanat Vakfi" (BISAV, 1986- The Foundation for Sciences and Arts) and "Ilmi Etudler Dernegi" (ILEM, 2002 - The Association for Scientific Studies), due to their high levels of institutionalization. The study constructs original qualitative datasets that use numerous online archival sources, including magazines/journals, organizational logistical reports and event commentaries, academic profiles and curriculum vitae of individual intellectuals, and other miscellaneous resources. The paper draws on social network analysis to explore the academic relations of more than 50 individuals who have significantly lectured in BISAV and ILEM, in order to develop an understanding of intellectual weight and relative autonomy within Turkey's contemporary Muslim intellectual space. The findings suggest that the betweenness centrality of individual intellectuals which takes into account their general intellectual productivity, scholarly engagement with non-Turkish (Western and Eastern) academic societies and publication outlets, can be a good indicator of their public intellectual influence in Muslim intellectual space in post-2000s Turkey. However, intellectual productivity and high levels of engagement do not readily translate into relative intellectual autonomy from the field of power, as various Muslim intellectuals become highly engaged with the political field, if not become a part of the political heteronomy. The relational perspective needs to be complemented by further understanding of the substantive attributes of intellectual engagement and output. The qualitative analysis in this regard suggests that the intellectual knowledge, which is produced and disseminated by these elite intellectual organizations and intellectuals, syncretizes Western academia with Islamic intellectual heritage, while strategizing to maintain balance between full-blown Westernism and defensive-reactionary Islamism.
Discipline
Sociology
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Islamic World
Turkey
Sub Area
None