Rethinking Modernity and National Identity in Turkey

by Sibel Bozdogan, Resat Kasaba

Overview

In the first two decades after W.W.II, social scientist heralded Turkey as an exemplar of a 'modernizing' nation in the Western mold. Images of unveiled women working next to clean-shaven men, healthy children in school uniforms, and downtown Ankara's modern architecture all proclaimed the country's success. Although Turkey's modernization began in the late Ottoman era, the establishment of the secular nation-state by Kemal Ataturk in 1923 marked the crystallization of an explicit, elite-driven 'project of modernity' that took its inspiration exclusively from the West. The essays in this book are the first attempt to examine the Turkish experiment with modernity from a broad, interdisciplinary perspective, encompassing the fields of history, the social sciences, the humanities, architecture, and urban planning. As they examine both the Turkish project of modernity and its critics, the contributors offer a fresh, balanced understanding of dilemmas now facing not only Turkey but also many other parts of the Middle East and the world at large.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295975979
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	07/01/1997
Series:	Publications on the Near East
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.64(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction, Sibel Bozdogan and Resat Kasaba

Kemalist Certainties and Modern Ambiguities, Resat Kasaba

Whither the Project of Modernity? Turkey in the 1990s, Caglar Keyder

Modernization Policies and Islamist Politics in Turkey, Haldun Gulalp

Projects as Methodology: Some Thoughts on Modern Turkish Social Science, Serif Mardin

The Quest for the Islamic Self within the Context of Modernity, Nilufer Gole

The Project of Modernity and Women in Turkey, Yesim Arat

Gendering the Modern: On Missing Dimensions in the Study of Turkish Modernity, Deniz Kandiyoti

The Predicament of Modernism in Turkish Architectural Culture: An Overview, Sibel Bozdoga

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Once There Was, Once There wasn't: National Monuments and Interpersonal Exchange, Michael E. Meeker

Silent Interruptions: Urban Encounters with Rural Turkey, Gulsum Baydar Nalbantoglu

Arabesk Culture: A Case of Modernization and Popular Identity, Ernest Gellner

The Turkish Option in Comparative Perspective, Roger Owen

Modernizing Projects in Middle Eastern Perspective, Joel S. Migdal

Finding the Meeting Ground of Fact and Fiction: Some Reflections on Turkish Modernization, Joel S. Migdal

List of Contributors

Index