Blurring the Boundaries between Left and Islam(ism) in Turkey: the Left-wing Islamists

• In Event: 474 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 20. Social Movements in Turkey

Abstract

This paper focuses on an emerging social movement in Turkey that I call left-wing Islamism and gives a theoretically-informed description of how the left-wing Islamists form and negotiate their collective identity. I introduce boundary theories into social movements literature and utilize it to study curious identity processes navigating between antithetical pre-existing identities. In addition to how the left-wing Islamists construct their “others” via exclusionary boundary-work, the paper elaborates on the mainstream boundaries between leftists and Islamists, and how the movement actors attempt to blur these boundaries in the course of building their collective identity. In order to blur the symbolic boundaries, they rely on i) introducing Islamists’ tactical repertoires into the left and adopting leftists’ repertoires simultaneously; ii) intellectual efforts synthesizing the commonalities of the two and articulating it anew; and iii) claiming explicitly both identities. The ways in which they try to blur the social boundaries are i) identifying common enemies and urgent situations to act upon collectively; ii) establishing informal networks covering both leftists and Islamists; and iii) creating “free spaces” on the basis of common values and struggles.

Author

• Mustafa Yavas, Yale University