This study focuses on the Welfare Party elite's conceptualisation of modernity
during the party's last 4-5 years before its closure in 1998. Since the party was the most
important Islamist organisation in Turkey. it was at an important point of interaction
between Islamism and modernity. The study tries to determine the significance of the WP
discourse on key modernisation issues by answering such questions as how the WP elite
conceptualised modernity; how this conceptualisation was formulated, constructed and
what was modernity's relationship with the West in their view. It argues that, the WP elite
had a distinct (Islamist) understanding of modernity which, despite its differences in its
approach to some basic issues (e. g. secularism) overall remained within modernity by
sharing most of its major characteristics. The WP elite, similar to many other Islamist
movements, advocated a more Islamic (less secular and less Westernising) route to
modernity; and they could not be considered as anti-modernists.
The study contributes towards a better understanding of the critical role that a
version of Islamism plays in Turkey's politics and process of modernisation and provides
insights about the impact of Western modernity on the sizeable Islamist section. The study
employs important concepts such as secularisation, nationalism, the modern state,
economic development (science, technology, industrialisation), capitalism and democracy
as important components of modernity. (It also provides a general analysis of Islamism in
the Middle East vis-รค-vis modernity through these concepts). An analysis of the views of
the WP elite with regard to these concepts and processes serves to better understanding the
Islamist stance towards the particular path of modernisation in Turkey, modernity in
general, and also the West. / Osmangazi University, Turkey / Additional content files accompanying this thesis are not available on Bradford Scholars, but are available from the British Library Ethos Service: https://ethos.bl.uk
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/4334 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Dinc, Cengiz |
| Contributors | Gallagher, Tom G.P., Russell, John |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Department of Languages and European Studies |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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