METU Department of Sociology and Middle East Studies Spring Term, 2008-09

Dr. Mustafa en (Prof. Dr. Bahattin Akit) Office: B40 Beeri Bldg. Phone: 210-3119 Email:senmusti@metu.edu.tr

Soc 522 Sociology of the Middle East 1. FirstPart First Week: Introduction In this course, the experiences of transformations in village, city, class, gender, ethnicity, economy, society, polity and culture structures and practices in the Middle East, Caucasia and Central Asia will be depicted. This will be done from the vantage points of the following concepts and underlying theories: globalization vs localization, universalism vs particularism, transformation vs reproduction, agency/actor vs structure, modernity vs post modernity, development vs underdevelopment, world system vs regional systems, third world vs fourth world, network society vs hierarchical structures, timeless time vs history, resistance vs project communities/ identities. One of the main foci of the course will consist of the development of secularization and revival of Islam in many countries of the region, including Turkey. 2. The Second part of the present reading list of the course include books on secularization in Islamic countries, religion in private sphere vs in public sphere; (post)modernity(ies), orientalism vs. occidentalism, civilization vs. culture, constitutionalism and civil society, cultural transitions, fundamentalist religion vs fundamentalist rationality, relativism vs relationism, globalism vs universalism, gender segregation vs gender integration and so on: Second Week (March 5) Mardin (ed.) (1994) Cultural Transitions in the Middle East, E.J. Brill. Third Week (March 12) Kandioti (ed.) (1991) Macmillan;

Women,

Islam

and

the

State,

Fourth Week (March 19) Gellner (1981) Muslim Society, Cambridge University Press. The Third part of the present reading list include more internal actor perspectives and participant observatonal accounts of Islam and modernization in the Middle Eas as exemplified by the following anthropological works:

Fifth Week (March 26) Geertz (1968) Islam Observed, Yale University Press; Sixth Week (April 2) Gilsenan (1984) Recognizing Islam, Croom Helm. The Fourth part include such books on Islam in political ideology, popular culture, scripturalist high culture, folk culture, in state structures, gender relations, educational structurations, and so on: Seventh Week (April 9) Stirling (1993) (ed.) Economy and Culture: Changes in Turkish Villages, Eothen Press; Eighth Week (April 16) Tapper (ed.) (1991) Islam Taurus;

in

Modern

Turkey,

I.B.

Nineth Week (April 23) National Holiday All of the books in the second, third and fourth parts will be assigned to the students to be read at home and to be discussed in class. Class attendance and participation into discussions is, as it can be guessed, very essential and 100% attendance is required. In the Fifth Part of the course students are expected to survey the recent literature on the social scientific study of the Middle East, Caucasia and Central Asia including the list below and expected to write a paper and present it in class. This paper will be submitted to the instructor in paper format at the end of the term. Abu-Lughod (1980) Rabat, urban apartheid in Morocco, Princeton Universitsy Press. Abu-Lughod (1993) Writing Womens Worlds, Bedouin Stories, University of California Press. Al-Ali (2000) Secularism, Gender and State in the Middle East, Cambridge University Press. http://ww2.lib.metu.edu.tr/ e-books, Ebrary. Al-Azmeh (1993) Islams and Modernities, Verso; Al-Azmeh (2001) Muslim Kingship: Power and the Sacred Muslim, Christian and Pagan Polities, I.B.Taurus. Arkoun (1994) Rethinking Islam, Westview Press. Ahmed (1992) Post modernism and Islam, Routledge; Asad and Owen (1983) Sociology of Developing Societies: The Middle East, Macmillan. Bayat (1997) Street Politics, Poor Peopless Movements in Iran, The American University in Cairo press.

Binder (1988) Islamic Liberalism, the University of Chicago press. Cooper, Nettler and Mahmoud (1998) Islam and Modernity, Muslim Intellectuals Respond, I. B. Taurus. Delaney (1998) Abraham on Trial: Social Legacy of Biblical Myth, Princeton University Press. Espesito and Burgat (Eds.) (2003) Modernizing Islam: Religion in the Public Sphere in the Middle East and Europe, Rutgers Univ. Press. Gellner (1992) Post modernism, Reason and Religion Routledge; Gershoni, I and Jankowski, J. (1995) Redefining the Egyptian Nation, 1930-45, Cambridge. Getteleman and Schaar (eds.) (2003) The MiddleEast and Islamic World Reader, GrovePress. Glavanis and Glavanis (eds.)(1983) The Rural Middle East, Zed Books; Glavanis and Glavanis (1986) Historical Materialism or Marxist Hagiography Current Sociology, Vol.34. Haghayeghi (1995) Islam and Politics in Central Asia, St. Martins press. Halliday (1995) Islam and the Myth of Confrontation, I.B.Tauris Publihers. Halliday and Alevi (eds.) (1988) State and Ideology in the Middle East, Macmillan; Hodgson (1974) The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History in a World Civilization, The University of Chicago Press. Hourani, Khoury and Wilson (eds) (1993) The Modern Middle East, I.B. Tauris Publishers. Ibrahim (1996) Egypt, Islam and Democracy, The American Univ. in Cairo press. Karamustafa (1994) Gods Unruly Friends, University of Utah Press Keddie (ed.)(1972) Scholars, Saints and Sufis: Muslim Religious Institutions Since 1500, University of California Press. Khuri (2007) Imams and Emirs: State, Religion and Sects in Islam, London: Saqi Books Mardin (1989) Religion and Social Change in Modern Turkey, State University of NewYork; Maoz (1999) Middle Eastern Minorities: Between Integration and Conflict, Washington Institute. Meijer (1999) Cosmopolitanism, Identitiy and Authenticity in the Middle East, Curzon Press. Mernissi, (1987) The Veil and the Male Elite, AddisoWesley; Nasr (2006) The Shia Revival, New York: Norton Olsson, zdalga and Randvere (1998) Alevi Identity, Swedish Research Institute in Turkey. Owen, State, power and Politics in the making of the Modern Middle East,

zdalga and Olsson (1996) Civil Society in the Middle East, Swedish Research Institute in Turkey. Parsa (1989) Social Origins of Iranian Revolution, Rudgers University Press. Rahman (1982) Islam and Modernity, the University of Chicago. Rahman (1984) Islamic Methodology in History, Roy (1994) The Failure of Political Islam, Harvard Univ. Press. Said (1993) Imperialism and Culture, Chatto and Windus; Saikal and Schnabel (2003)Democratizaiton in the Middle East: Experiences, Struggles, Challenges, the.United Nations University Press http://ww2.lib.metu.edu.tr/ e-books, Ebrary. Schulze, Stokes and Campbell (1996) Nationalism, Minorities and Diasporas: Identities and Rights in the Middle East, I.B.Taurus Publishers. Shankland (2000) Islam and Society in Turkey, the Eothen press. Sivan (1985) Radical Islam: Medieval Theology and Modern Politics, Yale University Press; Stokes (1992) The Arabesk Debate: Music and Musicians in Modern Turkey. Tibi (2002) Islam Between Culture and Politics, Palgrave. Tibi (1998) The Challenge of Fundamentalis: Political Islam and New World Disorder, Univ. of California Press. Tibi (1990) Islam and Cultural Accomodation of Social Change, Westview press. Turner (1994) Orientalism, post modernism and globalism, Routledge; Turner Religion and Social Theory, Sage. Turner (1978) Marx and the End of Orientalism, Allen and Unwin. Turner (1974)Weber and Islam, A Critical Approach, Routledge and Kegan Paul. Zubaida (2003) Law and Power in the Islamic World, I.B. Taurus. Attention: Course Requirements 1) Class attendance and participation in discussions of reading materials (20%) 2) Paper presentation in class (20%) 3) Submitting revised version of presentation as a full paper (20%) and 4) Final exam covering readings and presentations (40%) are the requirements of the course.