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Locating Political Theory: Merging of Western Intellectual Traditions with Islamic Thought
Abstract
This paper focuses on the notion of 'civilization' to examine the ways in which political theorizing in the Islamic intellectual field in Turkey is producing new concepts, views and perspectives that became the building blocks of the AKP's ideology and language. I speculate that the immense electoral success and popularity of the AKP is partly due to this unique ideology that is rooted in and draws from the hybrid political theory produced in the Islamic intellectual field, which made it much easier for diverse groups to relate to the party's ideology, program, and language. I argue that the intellectual discourse produced in the Islamic intellectual field is what can be referred to as “hybrid political theory,” or rather, "re-hybridized political theory," which is the product of the merging of Western intellectual traditions with Islamic, Ottoman, and Turkish political thought, which are hybrid categories themselves. This study expands the criticism of Eurocentricism into the field of political theory, by provincializing, or rather, locating political thought, not necessarily in its historical or political context, but rather in its intellectual context, by looking at the intellectual milieu within which new forms of political theorizing is emerging in Turkey. My research locates - and localizes - political theorizing particularly in two institutions, which have become two of the hubs of intellectual activity in Turkey during the past decade. One of these, BISAV, is an independent research and teaching institute that was founded in 1986 but exponentially expanded its activities after the AKP came to power in 2002. The other, SETA Foundation, is a think tank based in Ankara, which was founded in 2006 but has already produced two chief advisors to the AKP government and established a branch in Washington D.C. In this vast intellectual field, Western intellectual traditions are being brought together with Islamic and Turkish knowledges to create a new, ambitious, and hybrid school of political thought that aspires to become the foundation of not only a globally recognized new national identity for Turkey, but also a new world-view that inspires other countries, and particularly countries of the ‘Arab Spring’. I argue that this hybrid school of political theory subverts the dominance of Eurocentric perspectives in the field, but at the same time gives rise to essentialist perspectives and totalizing tendencies which eventually result in new hierarchies, power relations, and forms of subjugation as confirmed by the Gezi Park incident in 2013.
Discipline
Political Science
Geographic Area
Turkey
Sub Area
19th-21st Centuries