Date: 2015
Type: Thesis
Faith and citizenship among the Nur community in Turkey : a study in Islamic socio-political imagination
Florence : European University Institute, 2015, EUI, SPS, PhD Thesis
TEDESCO, Maria Concetta, Faith and citizenship among the Nur community in Turkey : a study in Islamic socio-political imagination, Florence : European University Institute, 2015, EUI, SPS, PhD Thesis - https://hdl.handle.net/1814/36159
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
Through an ethnographic study of sohbet meetings and patterns of civic and political engagement of the Nur community in Turkey, this thesis examines the processes through which Islamic socio-political imaginaries are constructed and subsequently turned into practice. The phrase ‘socio-political imaginary’ is used in the meaning given to it by Charles Taylor. According to the author, a social imaginary is the transformation of social theory into the profound normative notions and imagines that enable common people’s practice of society. Applying this analytical tool to the study of an Islamic community allows the researcher to fill in a gap of time and space existing in the literature about Islamic movements. In terms of time, it allows the researcher to focus the investigation on a little theorized step in the process of mobilization by religious actors that is, the cognitive elaboration of a socio-political project before mobilization around that project is organized. In terms of space, it grasps the intermediate level of cognition existing between the theological elaboration on politics and society promoted by religious scholars and the masses’ practical knowledge of the social realm constituted by a set of instinctive beliefs and judgments. Finally, the concept of social imaginary allows the researcher to analyse discourse and practice as mutually sustaining elements that together define a social actor’s function and position in society. Unravelling this dynamic interaction means going back and forth, both temporally and cognitively, between imagination and acts and recognizing that the discourse in itself can be influenced by the social space for which it provides a map.
Additional information:
Defence date: 10 June 2015; Examining Board: Prof. Olivier Roy, EUI/RSCAS (Supervisor); Prof. Armando Salvatore, McGill University (Co-Supervisor); Prof. Donatella Della Porta, European University Institute; Prof. Levent Yilmaz, Bilgi University.
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/36159
Full-text via DOI: 10.2870/207169
Series/Number: EUI; SPS; PhD Thesis
Publisher: European University Institute