Tracing Cultural Change in Turkey's Experience of Democratization

Book excerpt: Does democracy require an agreement on specific foundational values? Bringing insights from Turkey to the study of democratization, this book argues that democracy may rather be about acknowledging the disagreement over values before negotiating over other concerns, such as rights, freedoms, capabilities and duties. It explores this idea by examining three landscapes of culture in Turkey, which have been the subjects of persistent stories regarding the unequal relationship between the self and the other. These include LGBT visibility and the entertainment sector, women and clothing, and Alevism and funerals. Through these case studies, the book analyses the remaking of (in)tolerance through the integration of LGBT representations into broader political struggles over values, the assertion of women’s rights and freedoms from traditional values surrounding dress, and the conflict between essentialist intolerance and the syncretic traditions of Alevi identity. Bringing these landscapes together with the surrounding cultural tensions in Turkey and the West, Tracing Cultural Change in Turkey's Experience of Democratization will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of Middle Eastern studies and politics, gender studies and cultural studies.