The Library
Social theory and later modernities : the Turkish experience
Tools
Kaya, Ibrahim (2001) Social theory and later modernities : the Turkish experience. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
|
Text
WRAP_THESIS_Kaya_2001.pdf - Submitted Version Download (1364Kb) | Preview |
|
Image (Declaration form)
Lib Dec - Page 1.jpg Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only Download (626Kb) |
||
Image (Declaration form)
Lib Dec - Page 2.jpg Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only Download (640Kb) |
Abstract
This thesis investigates the socio-historical developments of Turkey in the light of current
developments in the tradition of comparative-historical sociology by according a central place to
the ‘concept of varieties of modernity’ in the analysis. The debate on varieties of modernity is a
response and a contribution to new theoretical developments regarding modernity. And this thesis
is set in the conceptual context of the current debate on varieties of modernity by aiming at
understanding the Turkish experience as a particular model of modernity. The starting-point of the
thesis is the possibility of the emergence of ‘multiple modernities’ with their specific
interpretations of the ‘imaginary significations of modernity’. As a consequence, a critique of
perspectives that reduce modernization of non-western societies to Westernization emerges
immediately. Thus, the assumed equivalence between the West and modernity is problematized
through the themes of the ‘plurality’ of civilizations, histories, modernizing agents and projects of
modernity. The concept of ‘later modernities’ is suggested as a category for certain varieties of
modernity, entirely different from the Western model. The term ‘later modernities’ refers in
particular to non-western experiences that came about as distinct models of modernity, different
from the West European experience, in the absence of colonization. In this context, the Turkish
experience is a particular modernization an analysis of which is able to clarify the argument for
varieties of modernity: the Turkish experience has been so far analysed only as a mere case of
Westernization. By analysing both civilizational patterns and modernizing agents of Turkey, this
thesis suggests that Turkish modernity cannot be read as a version of the Western model. This
conclusion is reached through examining Turkish history in terms of a ‘singularization of culture’
against the view that sees Turkey as a border country between the West and Islam. It is argued that
the division between West and East is, in fact, irrelevant in the case of Turkey. Therefore, the
Turkish experience, as later modernity, does not express a Western model of modernity nor does it
correspond to a ‘pure’ Islamic East. The distinctive traits of Turkish modernity are analysed on the
basis of the following themes: the nationalizing process, the configuration of state, society and
economy; Islam; the woman question. Finally, the lessons from the Turkish experience for a social
theory of modernity are discussed in terms of conclusions.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Sociology -- Turkey, Islam -- Turkey, Nationalism -- Turkey, Turkey -- Social conditions, Turkey -- Politics and government | ||||
Official Date: | June 2001 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Sociology | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Wagner, Peter, 1956- | ||||
Extent: | 265 pages | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |