Elitist by Default? Interaction Dynamics and the Inclusiveness of Secularization in Turkish Literary

ReleaseTime:2023-04-17 Publisher:Department of Sociology Reading:6

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Time: 27 April 2023  (Thursday)  3:00-4:30pm  (Beijing Time)

Venue: Zoom(online)

Meeting ID: 83994296588  Password: 651006

Language:  English


Topic: Elitist by Default? Interaction Dynamics and the Inclusiveness of Secularization in Turkish Literary Milieus

Abstract: Nonwestern secularization has the reputation of an elitist project, but poetry milieus in 20th-century Turkey experienced secularization in a relatively inclusive manner. Using comparative-historical, network, and statistical methods, this article compares poetry milieus to novelistic milieus, whose secularization closely resembles the Turkish/Islamic stereotype. This exercise identifies a previously unnoticed role that interaction dynamics play in shaping secularization patterns. As such, western-nonwestern difference as regards secularization is neither fiction nor fate: it involves structures of interaction that may appear anywhere. These findings suggest a more Simmelian direction for future scholarship, broadly affirming the ascendant culturalist orientation in the sociology of religion while revising some of its particular claims. They also call for a civic republican turn: while tempering past scholarship’s vilification of the state, they suggest that a vibrant civil society is the more vital component of relatively inclusive secularization.


Lecturer:Barış Büyükokutan is Associate Professor of Sociology at Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey. His research focuses on sociology of culture, sociology of religion, and comparative-historical sociology. His work has appeared in American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, and Political Power & Social Theory.


Moderator: Kurtuluş Gemici is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. He is a comparative-historical sociologist working on international finance, the sociology of markets, and theory. His work has appeared in journals such as Theory & Society, Socio-Economic Review, Sociological Theory, and Politics & Society. Recent publications include Capital Mobility and Distributional Conflict (Routledge, 2020) and How Global Are Investment Banks? (Regional Studies, 2020, with Karen Lai).