Microprocesses Of Norm Localization By Transnational Agents: Muslim Faith-Based NGOs and Liberal Civil Society

• In Event: 035 - Section on Global and Transnational Sociology Paper Session. Negotiating Universal Standards and Norms in Local Contexts

Abstract

Over the last two decades, informal Islamic networks have been reestablishing themselves as formal NGOs and building transnational coalitions. These newly formed faith-based NGOs retain their original agendas: promoting Islamic revival and global solidarity by supporting Muslim communities around the world. However, they now reposition themselves as “civil society initiatives” and selectively appropriate the liberal civil society discourse. This paper analyzes the discursive strategies local actors undertake when vernacularizing external idea packages that challenge their cognitive priors. The empirical findings of the paper demonstrate that the ideological self-positioning of the local norm-taker is a key determinant of vernacularization microprocesses. In order to reconcile the perceived normative conflict between political Islamist and liberal civil society frameworks, vernacularizers prune the civil society concept down to its associational and communitarian elements, discard its Western connotative associations, reconstruct the concept to match their institutional and cultural priors, and claim its original ownership.

Author

• Zeynep Atalay, St. Mary's College of California