Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
(2015) Maintaining ethnic boundaries in “non-ethnic” contexts: constructivist theory and the sexual reproduction of diversity, Theory and Society 44(1):33-64.
How can ethnic boundaries survive in contexts of legal racial equality and institutionalized ethnic mixing? Constructivist theories of ethnicity have long empha- sized the fluidity, rather than the durability, of ethnic boundaries. But the fact that ethnic boundaries often endure--and even thrive--in putatively non-ethnic political contexts suggests the need for sustained attention to the problem of boundary persistence. Based on an ethnographic study of ethnic boundaries in the Turkish case, this article argues that the regulation of the domain of sexuality and marriage can play a critical role in reproducing boundaries when political institutions neither acknowledge nor aid in the survival of ethnic diversity. Ultimately, the data provide substantial evidence that the transmission and internalization of informal rules of inter-ethnic sexual conduct are central to boundary maintenance.
Under Review
Mobilizing under stress: Islamist collective action in Turkey. Revise and Resubmit at Mobilization: An International Journal
A central problem in social movement research is to explain how movements maintain collective action in inhospitable contexts. Studies on the action-reaction nexus privilege the effect of repression on rates of public protests – or visible manifestations of dissent – sidelining how activists develop long-term organizational responses. This article uses the experience of Islamists in the post-1997 military coup period in Turkey to investigate how social movements survive and expand mobilization under hostile conditions. Drawing from eighteen months of fieldwork in formal and informal networks of religious training and socialization, I demonstrate that public displays of dissent such as sit-ins and protests constituted only a small portion of Islamist resistance. In order to sustain mobilization, Islamists combined their desire for immediate success in the political arena with a gradual cultural program of creating sympathizers and activists. This required them to redirect activism by adopting quiet, private, and nonconfrontational forms of mobilization. I conclude by underlining the contributions for studies of repression and dissent in semi-authoritarian contexts.
Other Publications
(2013) From religious schooling to mobilization in a secular state. Perspectives on Europe 43 (1): 145-149
This paper examines the role of religious education sites in reaching and recruiting new members for Islamist movements in Turkey. Following the 1980 military coup, the Turkish state integrated religion into the public education system to buttress its political legitimacy and counteract religious ‘extremism’ galvanized by the Iranian Revolution. However, state efforts at ‘domesticating’ Islam through public education generated contestation from religious actors. On the one hand, it inspired Islamic actors to build their own educational organizations to provide a different message than the one offered by the state. These parallel, and mostly informal, organizations served not only to transmit ‘traditional’ Islamic knowledge, but also to pursue broader social goals. On the other hand, they inadvertently led to the fragmentation and pluralization of centers of religious learning, and the competition between state and non- state actors over the structure and purpose of Islamic education. Eventually, these educational organizations became strategic sites of social mobilization for Islamist movements.
Book Review
“Islam’s Marriage with Neoliberalism: State Transformation in Turkey.” (by Yıldız Atasoy) New Perspectives on Turkey 46(2): 250-53
Work in Progress
Religious Change and Religious Revival: An Institutionalist Approach
This article outlines a new theoretical approach to the study of religious change and revival. While religious transformations have been an essential feature of the twentieth century nation-state system, sociologists of macro historical change have paid remarkably little attention to them. Given the recent resurgence in politically engaged religions across the globe, the field must address the analytical challenges religious transformations pose for sociological theorizing. Drawing on historical institutionalism and field theory, the article situates religious change and revival within the reconfiguration of power relations under new institutional circumstances. It specifies why and how the co-evolution of the state field and the religious field generate religious change and what the implications of this process are for religious revival. The article demonstrates the utility of this approach through a case study of religious change during the Ottoman-Turkish modernization process. It concludes by outlining an agenda for future research.
When Scripts Do Not Resonate: Global Diversity Discourses and Local Boundary Making in Southern Turkey (with Matthias Koenig)
What are the conditions under which global discourses resonate at the local level to facilitate social mobilization? Neo-institutional theories of global diffusion have long privileged macro-comparative perspectives, examining constitutions, legislative processes, or public policies. In this paper, we bring a new micro-theoretical approach to argue that script resonance is a necessary condition for local actors to mobilize as transnationally embedded movements. Our empirical analysis is based on a negative case study from southern Turkey where several ethnic minorities share grievances of discrimination and are strongly exposed to global discourses, but have not drawn from such scripts to mobilize. The findings suggest that global scripts resonate only if they match with minority members’ perception and reproduction of boundaries, or local idioms of diversity, to contest exclusion and stigma. Findings also show that when scripts do not resonate, local actors remain disconnected from transnational activist networks and do not pressure domestic governments towards greater conformity with the global institutional environment. We highlight broader implications for studies of neo-institutional world polity, global diffusion, and minority rights.
(2015) Maintaining ethnic boundaries in “non-ethnic” contexts: constructivist theory and the sexual reproduction of diversity, Theory and Society 44(1):33-64.
How can ethnic boundaries survive in contexts of legal racial equality and institutionalized ethnic mixing? Constructivist theories of ethnicity have long empha- sized the fluidity, rather than the durability, of ethnic boundaries. But the fact that ethnic boundaries often endure--and even thrive--in putatively non-ethnic political contexts suggests the need for sustained attention to the problem of boundary persistence. Based on an ethnographic study of ethnic boundaries in the Turkish case, this article argues that the regulation of the domain of sexuality and marriage can play a critical role in reproducing boundaries when political institutions neither acknowledge nor aid in the survival of ethnic diversity. Ultimately, the data provide substantial evidence that the transmission and internalization of informal rules of inter-ethnic sexual conduct are central to boundary maintenance.
Under Review
Mobilizing under stress: Islamist collective action in Turkey. Revise and Resubmit at Mobilization: An International Journal
A central problem in social movement research is to explain how movements maintain collective action in inhospitable contexts. Studies on the action-reaction nexus privilege the effect of repression on rates of public protests – or visible manifestations of dissent – sidelining how activists develop long-term organizational responses. This article uses the experience of Islamists in the post-1997 military coup period in Turkey to investigate how social movements survive and expand mobilization under hostile conditions. Drawing from eighteen months of fieldwork in formal and informal networks of religious training and socialization, I demonstrate that public displays of dissent such as sit-ins and protests constituted only a small portion of Islamist resistance. In order to sustain mobilization, Islamists combined their desire for immediate success in the political arena with a gradual cultural program of creating sympathizers and activists. This required them to redirect activism by adopting quiet, private, and nonconfrontational forms of mobilization. I conclude by underlining the contributions for studies of repression and dissent in semi-authoritarian contexts.
Other Publications
(2013) From religious schooling to mobilization in a secular state. Perspectives on Europe 43 (1): 145-149
This paper examines the role of religious education sites in reaching and recruiting new members for Islamist movements in Turkey. Following the 1980 military coup, the Turkish state integrated religion into the public education system to buttress its political legitimacy and counteract religious ‘extremism’ galvanized by the Iranian Revolution. However, state efforts at ‘domesticating’ Islam through public education generated contestation from religious actors. On the one hand, it inspired Islamic actors to build their own educational organizations to provide a different message than the one offered by the state. These parallel, and mostly informal, organizations served not only to transmit ‘traditional’ Islamic knowledge, but also to pursue broader social goals. On the other hand, they inadvertently led to the fragmentation and pluralization of centers of religious learning, and the competition between state and non- state actors over the structure and purpose of Islamic education. Eventually, these educational organizations became strategic sites of social mobilization for Islamist movements.
Book Review
“Islam’s Marriage with Neoliberalism: State Transformation in Turkey.” (by Yıldız Atasoy) New Perspectives on Turkey 46(2): 250-53
Work in Progress
Religious Change and Religious Revival: An Institutionalist Approach
This article outlines a new theoretical approach to the study of religious change and revival. While religious transformations have been an essential feature of the twentieth century nation-state system, sociologists of macro historical change have paid remarkably little attention to them. Given the recent resurgence in politically engaged religions across the globe, the field must address the analytical challenges religious transformations pose for sociological theorizing. Drawing on historical institutionalism and field theory, the article situates religious change and revival within the reconfiguration of power relations under new institutional circumstances. It specifies why and how the co-evolution of the state field and the religious field generate religious change and what the implications of this process are for religious revival. The article demonstrates the utility of this approach through a case study of religious change during the Ottoman-Turkish modernization process. It concludes by outlining an agenda for future research.
When Scripts Do Not Resonate: Global Diversity Discourses and Local Boundary Making in Southern Turkey (with Matthias Koenig)
What are the conditions under which global discourses resonate at the local level to facilitate social mobilization? Neo-institutional theories of global diffusion have long privileged macro-comparative perspectives, examining constitutions, legislative processes, or public policies. In this paper, we bring a new micro-theoretical approach to argue that script resonance is a necessary condition for local actors to mobilize as transnationally embedded movements. Our empirical analysis is based on a negative case study from southern Turkey where several ethnic minorities share grievances of discrimination and are strongly exposed to global discourses, but have not drawn from such scripts to mobilize. The findings suggest that global scripts resonate only if they match with minority members’ perception and reproduction of boundaries, or local idioms of diversity, to contest exclusion and stigma. Findings also show that when scripts do not resonate, local actors remain disconnected from transnational activist networks and do not pressure domestic governments towards greater conformity with the global institutional environment. We highlight broader implications for studies of neo-institutional world polity, global diffusion, and minority rights.