Call for papers: ‘Turkey-Originated Transnational Islamic Movements and Institutions’

9th Pan-European Conference of the European International Studies Association (EISA) (Section on ‘Transnational Religion, Dialogue and Conflict’)
Wednesday 23 - Saturday 26 September 2015, Giardini Naxos, Sicily, Italy, http://www.paneuropeanconference.org/2015/

Convenors: Erdi Özturk, erdiozturk86@gmail.com, and Luca Ozzano, luca.ozzano@unito.it
Prospective participants can propose a paper, by logging in at the address https://www.conftool.pro/paneuropean2015/ and submitting an abstract of up to 200 words by January 15, 2015. Please also send the abstract by mail to the convenors at erdiozturk86@gmail.com and luca.ozzano@unito.it.

Abstract:
It is well known that political theory and practices have often been feeding each other. In other words, there are two ways of interaction between theory and praxis; either there is an existing practise and on its basis a theory is built, or there is a developed theory and the implementation of this theory takes place in life. In this respect, the last two decades of the twentieth century have witnessed the return of religion to the mainstream of political life in an array of settings around the world. Moreover, since almost two decades religion got brought into international relations by transnational actors. Furthermore, not only Christian- and Jewish-oriented, but also Islam-oriented transnational actors are playing a more and more prominent role in word politics. Although they are often seen in a pejorative way, as sources of conflict and violence, they are organising philanthropy, education and inter-cultural dialogue activities and also developing mainly in relation to the role of the diaspora communities. In this context, Turkey has a particularly favourable position among other Muslim-majority countries because of its Western relations, a developing economy, and a relatively high rate of young population. As a consequence, Turkey-originated Turkish Islam is rapidly spreading throughout the globe. This panel aims to discuss the main activities of Turkey originated transnational Islamic actors and movements (such as for example the Hizmet movement of Fethullah Gülen and the Milli Gorus). Moreover, we welcome contributions about the transnational dimension of state institutions, such as the Diyanet.

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Dr. Luca Ozzano
Assistant Professor of Political Science
University of Turin
Convenor of the SISP Standing Group on 'Religion and Politics'
Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Societa'
Lungodora Siena 100 - 10153 Torino (Italy)
lucaozzano.altervista.org