Uneven Neoliberalization of Good Works: Islamic Charitable Fields and Their Impact on Diffusion

• In Event: 255 - Section on Economic Sociology Paper Session. Market Processes and Economic Lives in the Era of Neoliberalism

Abstract

Why does neoliberalism diffuse unevenly? This paper explores the negotiation of neoliberalism by focusing on Islam-inspired Egyptian and Turkish organizations’ competing orientations to poverty relief, which provides unique insights into the construction of the individual. Convergence accounts and communitarianism provide only partial insights into how poverty alleviation is contested. A field-based analysis allows us to extend the insights of the uneven diffusion literature to micro terrain and systematically analyze variation in constructions of poverty and individual independence. A relatively more unified Islamic field, which was thoroughly merged with a market-friendly state in Turkey, fostered the neoliberalization of charity. The fragmented Egyptian Islamic field, coupled with an unevenly cooperative (even if still market-friendly) state, led to the persistence of an embattled solidarism alongside the blossoming neoliberal charities. The study is based on fieldwork and comparative historical analysis.

Author

• Cihan Ziya Tugal, University of California, Berkeley