The Making of a Postsecular Society Classical and Contemporary Social Theory
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THE MAKING OF A POSTSECULAR SOCIETY Classical and Contemporary Social Theory Series Editor: Stjepan G. Mestrovic, Texas A&M University, USA Classical and Contemporary Social Theory publishes rigorous scholarly work that re-discovers the relevance of social theory for contemporary times, demonstrating the enduring importance of theory for modern social issues. The series covers social theory in a broad sense, inviting contributions on both ‘classical’ and modern theory, thus encompassing sociology, without being confined to a single discipline. As such, work from across the social sciences is welcome, provided that volumes address the social context of particular issues, subjects, or figures and offer new understandings of social reality and the contribution of a theorist or school to our understanding of it. The series considers significant new appraisals of established thinkers or schools, comparative works or contributions that discuss a particular social issue or phenomenon in relation to the work of specific theorists or theoretical approaches. Contributions are welcome that assess broad strands of thought within certain schools or across the work of a number of thinkers, but always with an eye toward contributing to contemporary understandings of social issues and contexts. Also in the series The Poetics of Crime Understanding and Researching Crime and Deviance Through Creative Sources Edited by Michael Hviid Jacobsen ISBN 978-1-4094-6995-7 Marx and Weber on Oriental Societies In the Shadow of Western Modernity Lutfi Sunar ISBN 978-1-4724-1716-9 Imaginative Methodologies in the Social Sciences Creativity, Poetics and Rhetoric in Social Research Edited by Michael Hviid Jacobsen, Michael S. Drake, Kieran Keohane and Anders Petersen ISBN 978-1-4724-0992-8 The Making of a Postsecular Society A Durkheimian Approach to Memory, Pluralism and Religion in Turkey MASSIMO ROSATI University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’, Italy Edited and with a foreword by Alessandro Ferrara © Massimo Rosati 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Massimo Rosati has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Ashgate Publishing Company Wey Court East 110 Cherry Street Union Road Suite 3-1 Farnham Burlington, VT 05401-3818 Surrey, GU9 7PT USA England www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows: Rosati, Massimo, 1969- The making of a postsecular society : a Durkheimian approach to memory, pluralism and religion in Turkey / by Massimo Rosati. pages cm. -- (Classical and contemporary social theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4724-2312-2 (hardback) -- ISBN 978-1-4724-2313-9 (ebook) -- ISBN 978- 1-4724-2314-6 (epub) 1. Postsecularism--Turkey. 2. Secularism--Turkey. 3. Religion and sociology--Turkey. 4. Cultural pluralism--Turkey. 5. Durkheim, Émile, 1858-1917. 6. Turkey--Religion. I. Title. BL2320.R67 2015 306.609561--dc23 2014030040 ISBN 978-1-4724-2312-2 (hbk) ISBN 978-1-4724-2313-9 (ebk – PDF) ISBN 978-1-4724-2314-6 (ebk – ePUB) II Printed in the United Kingdom by Henry Ling Limited, at the Dorset Press, Dorchester, DT1 1HD Contents List of Figures vii Foreword by Alessandro Ferrara ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii Introduction: New Centres, New Stories 1 PART I: A SOCIOLOGICAL THEORY OF POSTSECULAR SOCIETY 1 Centre and Periphery: Social Symbolic Morphology 15 2 Clarifying the Postsecular: A Sociological Reading 33 3 Postsecular Sanctuaries and the Centre: The Sacredness of Sacred Places 47 4 Memory, Trauma and the Work of Rituals: The Dynamics of Symbols 69 PART II: THE TURKISH LABORATORY 5 Centre and Periphery in the History of Republican Turkey: A Symbolic Analysis 83 6 From a Secular to a Postsecular and Post-Kemalist Turkey? The Neo-Ottoman (Democratic) Narrative and the Reconstruction of the Turkish Central Value System 119 7 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk: An Old Symbol in Transformation 175 8 Turning Religious Differences into a Museum: Aya Sofya 201 9 When the Water Finds its Crack: Hrant Dink at the Crossroads of Contemporary Turkey 213 vi The Making of a Postsecular Society 10 Modernities and Religions: The Four Quadrant Model 247 Conclusion: Habap and the Water that Came from Heaven 259 Appendix: Durkheim in Turkey 265 References 275 Index 297 List of Figures 1.1 The formal structure of the centre-periphery model 21 1.2 Cybernetics of the holy 22 1.3 Centre-periphery general model 25 3.1 Social integration/social regulation 61 3.2 Different ways of structuring social space 62 3.3 Categories of social space 63 5.1 Centre-periphery model in Turkey, 1923–1950 95 6.1a Centre-periphery model: Turkey, 1950–2011: Antagonistic centres 169 6.1b Centre-periphery model: Turkey, 1950–2011: New hybrid centres 170 9.1 Window of book and music shop beside the entrance to Sebat Palace 216 9.2 Poster above the entrance to Sebat Palace 217 9.3 Heart-shaped wreath, a centre of focus at the commemoration 218 9.4 The intersection of Halaskargazi caddesi, the street where Dink was killed, and Ergenekon caddesi 223 9.5 The dove as a symbol connected with Hrant Dink 227 9.6 Placards carried at the commemoration: ‘We are all Armenians’, ‘We are all Dink’ 228 9.7 The human circle outside the premises of Agos 233 9.8 Reverence in front of the wreath, the centre of the temporary shrine 234 10.1 Relationships between modernities and religions: The four quadrant model 250 To the memory of Hrant Dink, to Anna, Giovanni, Valentina, Flavio, Marco, Maddalena, Alì and Agop: may they live together differently, as in Hrant’s dream. Foreword My friend Massimo Rosati was just going over the manuscript of this book one more time before sending it to the publisher when, on the morning of 30 January, 2014, a sudden respiratory crisis took him away in less than an hour, aged 44. He had no premonition of what would happen and, like all of us, made plans for the day, the week, the months and the years ahead. The next day he and I were to attend the inaugural session of a Master’s programme and in the afternoon he expected guest speakers for a colloquium that never took place. Contingency could not have sent a stronger reminder of the fragility of all that is human. Not everything human, however, is ephemeral. As imponderable contingency strikes, the impulse is called forth to repair the fabric of meanings left behind by those we love. Massimo and I had been engaged in a continuous dialogue, as colleagues and friends, for over two decades and thus it was not difficult to pick up where he had left his work unfinished. The first part of this book reflects the urgency he felt to complete Habermas’ seminal idea of the postsecular society with a sociological reflection on the diversity of ways in which the ideals of accepting diversity – ‘living together, differently’ as he put it, borrowing from his hero Hrant Dink – and of mutual learning across the religious-secular divide could become a reality. He chose to cross-fertilize the notion of the postsecular with Shils’ theory of society as always comprising a centre and a periphery, no matter how varied and conflict-ridden they might be. As all great sociologists, however, he felt the need to keep his feet solidly on the ground, and his elective ground was Turkey, the focus of the second part of the book. Fascinated by the slow and contested transformation of the secularist imaginary and symbolism of Kemalist Turkey into a more nuanced neo-Ottoman narrative of coexistence and reconciliation with those religious roots that after 1989 had reemerged as a major source of identification, Massimo Rosati dedicated five years of solid research work and countless visits to all parts of Turkey to the writing of this book. He used to read Today’s Zaman every day, made himself familiar with the polemics around the memory of Hrant Dink, the journalist of Armenian origins assassinated in 2007, attended the memorial ceremonies at every anniversary, noting the growth of a germinal new postsecular spirit, and conducted many interviews with protagonists of Turkish intellectual life, all of which he thoroughly and painstakingly documented himself before venturing out any hypothesis. My part in the making of this book has only been that of a compiler who went one more time over the materials, checked the alignment of announced and actual contents, completed references and footnotes, and tried to homogenize x The Making of a Postsecular Society terminology – a technical and editorial role often infused with enthusiasm at rediscovering the theoretical brilliance of my friend, one of the best social theorists of his generation on the European scene. I was not always able to accomplish even these simple functions as completely as I would have wished. The reader will sometimes encounter the phrase ‘note of the ed.’ or ‘(sic)’ when the source of a quote remained unavailable or I was uncertain about its wording. Similarly, a certain oscillation will be noticed between the uses of the often recurring lexemes ‘reflective, reflectivity’ and ‘reflexive, reflexivity’. After consultation with Neil Jordan, ‘our’ editor without whose invaluable help Rosati’s manuscript would not have materialized into a book, the decision has been made not to impose more uniformity on the author’s thinking than we would be confident would not at some point alter his thought.