Contesting Pluralism(s)

Préface
Challenges accounts of Turkish/Muslim politics driven by 'Islamist vs. secularist' competition, offering a framework centred on pluralism.

Auteur
Nora Fisher-Onar is Associate Professor of International Studies at the University of San Francisco. Her research combines tools from comparative politics, international relations, and area studies to rethink the relationship between religion, politics, and pluralism, challenging Orientalism in how we read Muslim-majority states and societies. Previous publications include Istanbul: Living with Difference in a Global City (2018).

Texte du rabat

This innovative study challenges accounts of Turkey 's politics as driven by 'Islamist vs. secularist' competition, offering a new understanding which centres coalitions for and against pluralism. Utilising rich primary and secondary data, Nora Fisher-Onar introduces an analytical framework for capturing causal complexity in political contestation.

Résumé
Contesting Pluralism(s) challenges a widespread tendency to limit studies of Turkish and Muslim politics to 'Islamist vs. secularist' or 'Islam vs. democracy' debates. Instead, Nora Fisher-Onar's innovative argument centers on coalitions for and against pluralism. Retelling Turkey's story from the late Ottoman Empire to the present as a tale of pluralizing vs. anti-pluralist coalitions, this book offers an alternative explanation for major outcomes from elections and coup d'etats to revolutions. Here, cross-camp alliances pit those who are willing to coexist with 'Other(s)' against those who champion a unitary, national project in which everyone speaks, believes, looks, and loves as they do. Drawing on a rich array of primary and secondary data, Fisher-Onar introduces an analytical framework for capturing causal complexity in political contestation. This study rejects Orientalist exceptionalism, rereading the relationship between political religion, pluralism, and populism via a framework that travels across and beyond the Muslim-majority world.

Contenu
By Way of Introduction: Capturing Complexity, Contesting Pluralism; Part I. Theory: 1. Hard Binaries and their discontents; 2. Pluralizers and anti-pluralists-an alternative key to Politics in Turkey and beyond; Part II. History: 3. Long Nineteenth Century-from Ottoman Universalism to Turkish nationalism; 4. Short Twentieth Century-between embedded liberalism and ethno (-religious) nationalism; Part III. Twenty-First Century: 5. EU-niversalism, the Islamo-liberal moment, and nationalist backlash; 6. Neo-Ottomanism-from pluralizing promise to religious populism; 7. Turkey turns-of clashing Islamists, contesting kurds, and a coup attempt; 8. Turkish-Islamist synthesis 2.0 and the new pluralizers; Conclusion: Learning from Turkey's transformationlessons for (comparative) area studies, politics, and International relations; Index.