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Enchanted Welfare : Islamic Imaginary and Giving to Strangers in Turkey

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Enchanted Welfare : Islamic Imaginary and Giving to Strangers in Turkey Open Research Online The Open University’s repository of research publications and other research outputs Enchanted welfare : Islamic imaginary and giving to strangers in Turkey Thesis How to cite: Zeybek, Hilal (2013). Enchanted welfare : Islamic imaginary and giving to strangers in Turkey. PhD thesis The Open University. For guidance on citations see FAQs. c 2012 The Author https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Version: Version of Record Link(s) to article on publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21954/ou.ro.0000d506 Copyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk Enchanted Welfare Islamic Imaginary and Giving to Strangers in Turkey Hilal Zeybek Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Political and International Studies 2013 Your full name: Hilal Zeybek Personal identifier (PI): Y7047498 Affiliated Research Centre (ARC) (if applicable): POLIS Thesis title: Enchanted Welfare: Islamic Imaginary and Giving to Strangers in Turkey I confirm that I am willing for my thesis to be made available to readers by The Open University Library, and that it may be photocopied, subject to the . discretion of the Librarian Hilal Zeybek 20 I 03 I 2013 DD/MMIYY The Open University has agreed that a copy of your thesis can be made available on loan to the British Library Thesis Service on a voluntary basis. The British Library may make the thesis available online. Please indicate your preference below: [8] I am willing for The Open University to loan the British Library a copy of my thesis o I do not wish The Open University to loan the British Library a copy of my thesis ABSTRACT This study explores welfare provision by non-state agents in contemporary Turkey. It analyses the phenomenon neither as an extension of the redistributive functions of the state nor as part of market mechanisms but through the theoretical lens of gift-giving. It argues that contractual relations of the market or the anonymity of redistribution fall short of acknowledging the personal, asymmetrical and religious formation of this field. The welfare regime in Turkey is currently undergoing radical transformation, with provisions increasingly expressed within a gift-giving vocabulary. Waqf, the Islamic institution of endowment, plays an important role in this transformation. It provides both the institutional frame of operation and the imaginary signification that interpellates subjects to take part in these operations. Historically, waqf has been the main welfare provider in Muslim societies and has provided a legitimate source of social citizenship. Through its various features, it has shaped the enactments of citizenship throughout a vast geography. This research is also an endeavour to see how these historical features inform the present landscape of welfare provision in Turkey. The research is built upon an extensive ethnography conducted in a central Anatolian city, with a booming industry and an Islamic outlook. The particular focus of this research, given its anthropological methodology, is the daily practices of various field actors. Instantiations of gift-giving characterize the majority of these practices-things, services, prayers, and recognition changing hands. Starting with this observation, the dissertation approaches gift-giving as a prominent mechanism in the field of welfare provision in Turkey. The significance of this paradigm is discussed vis-a-vis dominant political economic discourses, and the ethical and political potentials it brings forth are illustrated. This study is an invitation to have a fuller grasp of welfare provision as a hybrid field of social, political and ethical norms, behaviour and institutions. 3 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7 GLOSSARY OF TURKISH WORDS 11 INTRODUCTION 13 RELIGIOUSLY MOTIVATED WELFARE PROVISION IN THE MIDDLE EAST 15 THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CHOICES 20 DISSERTATION STRUCTURE •..••••...••••••••.••••..••.•....••....••...••.••••.•........••.••.•.•••..•.••......•......•......................... 27 A note on the choice ofterminology 33 CHAPTER 1 THE CHALLENGE OF GIFT: RETHINKING POLITICAL ECONOMY OF WELFARE 37 THIS THING CALLED CAPITALISM 38 Homo economicus 41 Commodity exchange and redistribution 44 THEGIFT 50 Mauss' gift 52 Gift as a conceptual tool 54 AN ISLAMIC ApPROACH TO ECONOMY 59 CONCLUSION 69 CHAPTER 2 WAQF AS INSTITUTION AND IMAGINARY 73 THE INSTITUTION OF W AQF 73 The waqf between public and private 77 The waqf as a civic institution 81 The decline of the waqf. 84 THE WELFARE REGIME OF THE TuRKISH REpUBLIC 88 Social Solidarity Vakifs 91 WELFARE PROVISION AS A PERSONAL ACT 94 CONCLUSION 99 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 103 THE PERILS OF THE INSIDE 105 ETHNOGRAPHY: SEEING OR BECOMING 113 Estrangement versus intimacy 116 METHODOLOGICAL Focus 118 Delimiting thefield 118 Gender matters 122 THE SITE OF ETHNOGRAPHY 125 Erciyes Feneri 126 Melikgazi Vakfi 128 Kayseri Darulaceze Valcji 129 COMPLEMENTARY RESEARCH STRATEGIES AND DATA ANALYSIS 130 CHAPTER 4 KAYSERt AND ITS PHILANTHROPISTS 135 A SUCCESS STORY 136 Land of philanthropists 142 Thefield of beneficence 146 WHY ENDOW? 149 Giving back to the city 149 Early pedagogies 151 Philanthropia : 153 Prolonged lives 155 Upholding society ··..· 156 CONCLUSION 157 5 CHAPTER 5 HIZMET: AN ETHOS OF SERVICE 159 LABOURING FOR HIZMET 161 Charity fairs 166 The gift of labour 170 The gift of prayer ···························· 173 The gift as exchange 175 DONATING FOR HIZMET 178 Religious money 179 Tainted money 182 NETWORKING FOR HIZMET 186 CONCLUSION 194 CHAPTER 6 OUR POOR: CRITERIA, ENTITLEMENT AND JUSTICE ··············197 GOVERNING THROUGH CATEGORIES 200 WHO WILL BE OUR POOR? 205 The male breadwinner 207 Productive hands 211 The hardworking and the beggar 215 Possessions 224 RESPONSIBILlSATION AND MORALISATION 228 JUSTICE AS RELATIONALITY 231 CONCLUSION 233 CHAPTER 7 ETHICS OF BEING A V AKIF<;I 235 ETHICAL BODIES, EMBODIED AFFECTS 237 Affects ofpoverty ········· 240 Positive ethics ···· 244 Discipline 246 AN ETHICS OF CARE 251 AN ETHICS OF GIVING 257 CONCLUSION 261 CONCLUSION 265 REFERENCES 275 6 Acknowledgements This work is the materialisation of my incurred debts to so many people that any acknowledgement would be insufficient. I can only rely on the assumption that they know that their gifts were heartily accepted and very much appreciated. Without the support of my supervisors Engin F. Ism and Umut Erel, this research project would not even have been possible. I have benefited from their intellectual, organisational and moral support for every curve along this path. Their professional congeniality has taught me the value of true mentorship. This thesis owes a debt to their generosity. Open University Research School has supported this project with a full scholarship and provided a range of opportunities for intellectual and academic development. But most important of all, the university's vision and its foundational principles have gradually become a source of admiration for me. I am glad to be part of an institution which strives to make higher education more egalitarian and accessible. Two other institutions dedicated to making knowledge and thought common property are also deserving of my special thanks: the British Library in London and the Centre for Islamic Studies (tSAM) in Istanbul. Without the resources and study space these two institutions provided, this thesis could not have come to fruition. Ethnographic research necessarily blurs the distinctions between research participants and friends. During my fieldwork in Kayseri I made some friends whose generosity and hospitality made vital contributions to my life and research. Perihan Altun, Leyla Ekiz, Ahmet GUm~, Nuh Hasyuncu, Fatma Kayar and Pmar Akyurt, you taught me more than you could possibly have intended. I also thank all of the staff, volunteers and beneficiaries of Erciyes Feneri, Kayseri Darulaceze Vakfi and Melikgazi Vakfi, who let me work with them and answered my endless questions. 7 Although the PhD is known to be an isolating experience, with right kind of friends it can tum into a joyful quest. I am indebted to them all. Uli Beisel and Elena Vacchelli made trips to the British Library something to look forward to. Elena, also read parts of this dissertation and contributed valuable comments, which kick-started me back to work after a very long break. Banu Aydmoglugil and Veysel Apaydm have always been true friends for hours of conversation, for taking jolly walks in London parks, and for laughing with till we burst. I truly miss every hour we have spent together. With Feyza Akmerdem and Esra Demir, we thankfully have a similar trajectory, so leaving London did not mean leaving them behind. This would have been heartbreaking. Dear friends Selma Altun, Billur Dokur, Simon Hutta, irem lnceoglu, Algm Saydar, Ozlem Onsal, Johanna Wadsley, Alex Wafer, Amy Watson, Besim Can Zirh and Cagda Zirh were always there in days of joy and sorrow. Cigdem Esin and Kahraman Yadrrgi offered us their lovely flat while we were waiting to move to Istanbul. With that being the worst winter London had experienced in decades, their hospitality saved us from breaking our necks on the streets. Lunch and tea breaks with the iSAM cohort made the final phases of writing bearable. Besides these more conventional interactions, a cosy email group has functioned as my lifeline
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