Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.343
Guiyu Su, Yaoping Liu
As one of the prominent Mahayana Buddhist institutions from Taiwan, Fo Guang Shan (FGS) entered the religious market of Thailand as early as the 1990s. Its influence has grown tremendously among the local Chinese communities and Thai society. Despite this, there is a dearth of scholarship dedicated to FGS’s market expansion in Theravada-dominated Thailand. Through a SWOT analysis, this paper explores FGS’s marketing strategy for the Thai religious market. The findings suggest that FGS bears certain strengths, such as its appealing humanistic Buddhist doctrine, gift-giving networking skills and its strong emotional bonds with the Chinese communities in Thailand. These strengths have brought and will continuously provide FGS with opportunities for further expansion. However, FGS’s weakness is always there and obvious, given its foreign and non-mainstream nature and questionable legitimacy of existing as a Buddhist institution (or temple) in Thailand. All this has already caused threats to FGS’s missionary clergies and sanctuaries, mainly based in the Bangkok area, not to mention the growingly fierce competition from its Thai Theravada and local-born Mahayana counterparts.
{"title":"Fo Guang Shan’s Expansion in the Religious Market of Thailand","authors":"Guiyu Su, Yaoping Liu","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2022.343","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.343","url":null,"abstract":"As one of the prominent Mahayana Buddhist institutions from Taiwan, Fo Guang Shan (FGS) entered the religious market of Thailand as early as the 1990s. Its influence has grown tremendously among the local Chinese communities and Thai society. Despite this, there is a dearth of scholarship dedicated to FGS’s market expansion in Theravada-dominated Thailand. Through a SWOT analysis, this paper explores FGS’s marketing strategy for the Thai religious market. The findings suggest that FGS bears certain strengths, such as its appealing humanistic Buddhist doctrine, gift-giving networking skills and its strong emotional bonds with the Chinese communities in Thailand. These strengths have brought and will continuously provide FGS with opportunities for further expansion. However, FGS’s weakness is always there and obvious, given its foreign and non-mainstream nature and questionable legitimacy of existing as a Buddhist institution (or temple) in Thailand. All this has already caused threats to FGS’s missionary clergies and sanctuaries, mainly based in the Bangkok area, not to mention the growingly fierce competition from its Thai Theravada and local-born Mahayana counterparts.","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"53 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89745699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.341
Luka Benedičič
This paper is a study of the self-immolation of the Mahayana Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc in 1963, Saigon. It highlights some of the reactions to this event, as well as more recent academic analyses, and contrasts them with the letter of the monk Thich Nhat Hanh who disagreed that the self-immolation was a protest or suicide. This ontological discrepancy motivated new research approaches. In order to show it as studyable, the paper thematizes it by introducing the conceptual pair of visible-invisible. It presents a discussion by Mario Blaser that addresses the field of epistemology and ontology, also commenting on some fundamental theoretical approaches such as the ontological turn and cosmopolitics. The paper argues that the invisible – for example ontological – contents of the event have been overlooked in many analyses, or oversimplified by using an objectivist or political vocabulary.
{"title":"The Burning Monk","authors":"Luka Benedičič","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2022.341","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.341","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is a study of the self-immolation of the Mahayana Buddhist monk Thich Quang Duc in 1963, Saigon. It highlights some of the reactions to this event, as well as more recent academic analyses, and contrasts them with the letter of the monk Thich Nhat Hanh who disagreed that the self-immolation was a protest or suicide. This ontological discrepancy motivated new research approaches. In order to show it as studyable, the paper thematizes it by introducing the conceptual pair of visible-invisible. It presents a discussion by Mario Blaser that addresses the field of epistemology and ontology, also commenting on some fundamental theoretical approaches such as the ontological turn and cosmopolitics. The paper argues that the invisible – for example ontological – contents of the event have been overlooked in many analyses, or oversimplified by using an objectivist or political vocabulary.","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79512329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.347
I. Mohammed
Over the last decade, there has been an increasing awareness that colonialism continues through various overlapping iterations of coloniality, such as politics, economics, security and academia. Academics from global north countries and global south countries have highlighted and called for the dismantling of coloniality in its various iterations. Perhaps the most vocal decolonising calls have come from global north academics wanting to decolonise global north academia in the form of epistemic decolonisation. As such, in this article, I call on global north academics researching 'on and in' global south countries to employ decolonial methodologies to avoid inadvertently reinforcing coloniality. By utilising autoethnography and critical decolonial reflexivity, I offer ways for global north academics researching on or in global south countries to guard against reinforcing coloniality during their research.
{"title":"Researching \"On and In\" Global South Countries","authors":"I. Mohammed","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2022.347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.347","url":null,"abstract":"Over the last decade, there has been an increasing awareness that colonialism continues through various overlapping iterations of coloniality, such as politics, economics, security and academia. Academics from global north countries and global south countries have highlighted and called for the dismantling of coloniality in its various iterations. Perhaps the most vocal decolonising calls have come from global north academics wanting to decolonise global north academia in the form of epistemic decolonisation. As such, in this article, I call on global north academics researching 'on and in' global south countries to employ decolonial methodologies to avoid inadvertently reinforcing coloniality. By utilising autoethnography and critical decolonial reflexivity, I offer ways for global north academics researching on or in global south countries to guard against reinforcing coloniality during their research.\u0000 ","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81562147","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.351
Tina Berdajs
V prispevku je analizirana izbrana motivika na različnih vrstah poslikanega vzhodnoazijskega porcelana, ki ga v zbirki keramike hrani Narodni muzej Slovenije. Članek z analizo primarnih virov in sekundarne literature in neposredne obravnave predmetov predstavi pregled slogov okraševanja ter izbranih rastlinskih in živalskih motivov, ki jih najpogosteje srečamo na porcelanu iz omenjene zbirke, ki spada v obdobje med prvo polovico 17. in koncem 19. stoletja (oziroma začetkom 20. stoletja). V povezavi z analizo motivike in simbolike so predstavljene tudi tri raziskave primerov posameznih predmetov, pri katerih okrasni elementi nudijo vpogled v bogate zgodbe, povezane s kulturno-zgodovinskim ozadjem trgovskih in kulturnih izmenjav med Evropo in Vzhodno Azijo. V prispevku sta obravnavana kitajski in japonski izvozni porcelan, ki so ju masovno proizvajali za zahodne trge, vendar sta bila okrašena z vzhodnoazijsko motiviko. Prispevek vodi v razmislek o vlogi obravnavane simbolike v japonskem in kitajskem kulturno-zgodovinskem okolju in v povezavi s tem tudi (potencialne) vloge te motivike v okolju, kjer so končali predmeti vzhodnoazijskega izvora – na ozemlju današnje Slovenije.
{"title":"Razumevanje motivike in simbolike na vzhodnoazijskem porcelanu v zbirki Narodnega muzeja Slovenije","authors":"Tina Berdajs","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2022.351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.351","url":null,"abstract":"V prispevku je analizirana izbrana motivika na različnih vrstah poslikanega vzhodnoazijskega porcelana, ki ga v zbirki keramike hrani Narodni muzej Slovenije. Članek z analizo primarnih virov in sekundarne literature in neposredne obravnave predmetov predstavi pregled slogov okraševanja ter izbranih rastlinskih in živalskih motivov, ki jih najpogosteje srečamo na porcelanu iz omenjene zbirke, ki spada v obdobje med prvo polovico 17. in koncem 19. stoletja (oziroma začetkom 20. stoletja). V povezavi z analizo motivike in simbolike so predstavljene tudi tri raziskave primerov posameznih predmetov, pri katerih okrasni elementi nudijo vpogled v bogate zgodbe, povezane s kulturno-zgodovinskim ozadjem trgovskih in kulturnih izmenjav med Evropo in Vzhodno Azijo. V prispevku sta obravnavana kitajski in japonski izvozni porcelan, ki so ju masovno proizvajali za zahodne trge, vendar sta bila okrašena z vzhodnoazijsko motiviko. Prispevek vodi v razmislek o vlogi obravnavane simbolike v japonskem in kitajskem kulturno-zgodovinskem okolju in v povezavi s tem tudi (potencialne) vloge te motivike v okolju, kjer so končali predmeti vzhodnoazijskega izvora – na ozemlju današnje Slovenije.\u0000 ","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"37 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80185754","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.246
Javad Taheri
This paper aimed to present a novel approach to the comparative philosophy of religion which I call traditions-oriented. It is related to and yet distinct from both comparative philosophy and confessional (tradition-oriented) comparative theology. This paper begins with a reflection on the meaning and employment of ‘comparison’ in the context of philosophical analysis. What follows is an analysis of the nature of the comparative practice conducted under the umbrella concept of the comparative philosophy of religion. After sketching out the developmental trajectory of research through which a traditions-oriented, non-neutral, comparative philosophy of religion can emerge, the articulation and implementation of a global monotheistic philosophy of religion is suggested. Two case-studies from the area of Muslim-Christian comparative reflection are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach developed in this paper.
{"title":"Traditions-Directed Approach in the Comparative Philosophy of Religion","authors":"Javad Taheri","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2022.246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.246","url":null,"abstract":"This paper aimed to present a novel approach to the comparative philosophy of religion which I call traditions-oriented. It is related to and yet distinct from both comparative philosophy and confessional (tradition-oriented) comparative theology. This paper begins with a reflection on the meaning and employment of ‘comparison’ in the context of philosophical analysis. What follows is an analysis of the nature of the comparative practice conducted under the umbrella concept of the comparative philosophy of religion. After sketching out the developmental trajectory of research through which a traditions-oriented, non-neutral, comparative philosophy of religion can emerge, the articulation and implementation of a global monotheistic philosophy of religion is suggested. Two case-studies from the area of Muslim-Christian comparative reflection are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach developed in this paper.","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91356236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.333
J. Dillon
This article presents the phenomenon of religious revival in the twentieth century through a case study of phenomenology at Mahidol University Salaya campus, Thailand. The principal scope of this study is on the socio-religious construct of the contemporary Buddhist community at Mahidol University Salaya campus. The revival of religion at the university has transformed the campus into a religious space that juxtapositions its secular academic framework.
{"title":"case study on the Consecration of Space at Mahidol University Salaya Campus","authors":"J. Dillon","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2022.333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.333","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents the phenomenon of religious revival in the twentieth century through a case study of phenomenology at Mahidol University Salaya campus, Thailand. The principal scope of this study is on the socio-religious construct of the contemporary Buddhist community at Mahidol University Salaya campus. The revival of religion at the university has transformed the campus into a religious space that juxtapositions its secular academic framework.\u0000 ","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"20 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75602479","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.353
Anja Zalta
The paper presents the concept of “dual awakening”, which is based on the Buddhist mindfulness appropriated by socially engaged Buddhism as a method to recognize and implement a “wholesome” paradigm on both the social and individual level. In the first half of the paper, I analyze the idea of “dual awakening” in the Southeast Asian context, especially in the case of the Sarvodaya Sramadana movement in Sri Lanka, In the second part of the paper, I review some of the research on (mindfulness) meditation in the West to critically evaluate the de-contextualization of transferring Buddhist ideas and methods (such as cultivating empathy and compassion as a basis for social action) into the Western modernist paradigm.
{"title":"“Dual awakening?”","authors":"Anja Zalta","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2022.353","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.353","url":null,"abstract":"The paper presents the concept of “dual awakening”, which is based on the Buddhist mindfulness appropriated by socially engaged Buddhism as a method to recognize and implement a “wholesome” paradigm on both the social and individual level. In the first half of the paper, I analyze the idea of “dual awakening” in the Southeast Asian context, especially in the case of the Sarvodaya Sramadana movement in Sri Lanka, In the second part of the paper, I review some of the research on (mindfulness) meditation in the West to critically evaluate the de-contextualization of transferring Buddhist ideas and methods (such as cultivating empathy and compassion as a basis for social action) into the Western modernist paradigm.","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"33 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76543637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2022.340
Maja Maria Kosec
The issue of religious practices within the Chinese diaspora in Cuba is increasingly debated within Chinese studies in Latin America. As the Chinese and African diasporas in Cuba have intermingled ethnically, their religious practices have historically also intermingled. While the rise of Afro-Cuban religions in recent decades is primarily understood as a response to centuries of Spanish colonialism and perceived as a resistance to Eurocentric hegemonic power, this article aims to examine the efforts of the Chinese diaspora to re-evaluate their religions from the same decolonial perspective. This article aims to determine the tendencies of interactions between Chinese religious beliefs and Cuba’s religions before and after the Cuban Revolution, including after the fall of the socialist bloc. Specifically, it examines whether post-revolution state atheism had an impact on the religious beliefs and ethnic heritage of members of the Chinese diaspora. In the 1990s there was a revival of the Guan Yu (关羽) cult which has been often interpreted as a consequence of the economic interests of the Chinese and Afro-Chinese diaspora or as a consequence of the interests of the Cuban government. However, we must also be aware of the broader historical, social and political context at play here.
{"title":"Chinese Religions and the Cuban Revolution","authors":"Maja Maria Kosec","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2022.340","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2022.340","url":null,"abstract":"The issue of religious practices within the Chinese diaspora in Cuba is increasingly debated within Chinese studies in Latin America. As the Chinese and African diasporas in Cuba have intermingled ethnically, their religious practices have historically also intermingled. While the rise of Afro-Cuban religions in recent decades is primarily understood as a response to centuries of Spanish colonialism and perceived as a resistance to Eurocentric hegemonic power, this article aims to examine the efforts of the Chinese diaspora to re-evaluate their religions from the same decolonial perspective. This article aims to determine the tendencies of interactions between Chinese religious beliefs and Cuba’s religions before and after the Cuban Revolution, including after the fall of the socialist bloc. Specifically, it examines whether post-revolution state atheism had an impact on the religious beliefs and ethnic heritage of members of the Chinese diaspora. In the 1990s there was a revival of the Guan Yu (关羽) cult which has been often interpreted as a consequence of the economic interests of the Chinese and Afro-Chinese diaspora or as a consequence of the interests of the Cuban government. However, we must also be aware of the broader historical, social and political context at play here.","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"5 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84714909","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2021.286
M. Çoban
Along with many others, Bosniaks are an ethnic group within the contemporary Turkish nation with immigrant roots dating back to the last quarter of the 19th century. Constituting a significant ethno-demographic part of the Ottoman legacy within the modern Turkish nation, Bosniaks in Turkey have long refrained from identifying themselves with a separate ethnic or cultural identity when confronted with the assimilationist cultural policies of the new nation state. But, while adapting themselves to Turkish culture and identity, Bosniaks have also preserved a collective identity of Bosniakness, mostly owing to the fact that their population in Turkey has been fed by continuous migration waves in different periods. The aim of this study is to analyze the problematic development of a Bosniak identity in Turkey with regards to the cultural assimilation processes and continuous migration waves and other factors on both foreign and domestic scales. Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that Bosniaks in Turkey do not yet constitute a Bosniak diaspora, but rather they can be regarded as a diaspora in the making.
{"title":"Caught Between the Notions of Ethnicity, Citizenship and Diaspora. The Case of the Bosniaks in Turkey","authors":"M. Çoban","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2021.286","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2021.286","url":null,"abstract":"Along with many others, Bosniaks are an ethnic group within the contemporary Turkish nation with immigrant roots dating back to the last quarter of the 19th century. Constituting a significant ethno-demographic part of the Ottoman legacy within the modern Turkish nation, Bosniaks in Turkey have long refrained from identifying themselves with a separate ethnic or cultural identity when confronted with the assimilationist cultural policies of the new nation state. But, while adapting themselves to Turkish culture and identity, Bosniaks have also preserved a collective identity of Bosniakness, mostly owing to the fact that their population in Turkey has been fed by continuous migration waves in different periods. The aim of this study is to analyze the problematic development of a Bosniak identity in Turkey with regards to the cultural assimilation processes and continuous migration waves and other factors on both foreign and domestic scales. Based on the findings of the study, it can be concluded that Bosniaks in Turkey do not yet constitute a Bosniak diaspora, but rather they can be regarded as a diaspora in the making.","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"31 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77972911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-29DOI: 10.35469/poligrafi.2021.281
O. Onay
This paper critically examines the diminishing agency of the first-urbanised Alevi generation vis- à-vis the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their sectarian agenda mediated by political Islam. The conceptual position is underpinned by Foucault’s concept of governmentality and theory of agency in broader cultural terms. These theoretical frameworks interweave to present a rich and complex set of snapshots that document the first-urbanised Alevi generation’s decreasing possibilities of action in the urban context. Accordingly, the empirical data that informs this piece has been collected by a series of qualitative and semi-structured interviews with the first-urbanised Alevi generation, children of those who migrated to urban areas in the 1960s and wittingly or unwittingly kept their identities undisclosed to varying degrees. Those interviewed come from a range of different professional backgrounds, with the only common point being that they have spent their childhoods and adult years in Istanbul, Turkey. Through a close engagement with the empirical material, this paper addresses the effects of the AKP’s Sunnification process centring around political Islam on the first generation urbanised Alevis and to what extent the systemic nature of this process attenuates or takes away their agency in the urban context. The account is focused around three key themes including daily life, institutional forms of discrimination and the workplace.
{"title":"The Diminishing Agency of Urbanised Alevis Against the Rise of Political Islam in Turkey","authors":"O. Onay","doi":"10.35469/poligrafi.2021.281","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35469/poligrafi.2021.281","url":null,"abstract":"This paper critically examines the diminishing agency of the first-urbanised Alevi generation vis- à-vis the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and their sectarian agenda mediated by political Islam. The conceptual position is underpinned by Foucault’s concept of governmentality and theory of agency in broader cultural terms. These theoretical frameworks interweave to present a rich and complex set of snapshots that document the first-urbanised Alevi generation’s decreasing possibilities of action in the urban context. Accordingly, the empirical data that informs this piece has been collected by a series of qualitative and semi-structured interviews with the first-urbanised Alevi generation, children of those who migrated to urban areas in the 1960s and wittingly or unwittingly kept their identities undisclosed to varying degrees. Those interviewed come from a range of different professional backgrounds, with the only common point being that they have spent their childhoods and adult years in Istanbul, Turkey. Through a close engagement with the empirical material, this paper addresses the effects of the AKP’s Sunnification process centring around political Islam on the first generation urbanised Alevis and to what extent the systemic nature of this process attenuates or takes away their agency in the urban context. The account is focused around three key themes including daily life, institutional forms of discrimination and the workplace.","PeriodicalId":36657,"journal":{"name":"Poligrafi","volume":"9 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81291205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}