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The Rise of Alevism as a Public Religion

2005; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 53; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/0011392105051336

1461-7064

Şehriban Şahin,

Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies

The article explores why and how Alevism, a religious creed and tradition that had been kept esoteric and transmitted only orally at secret rituals, has emerged in public spheres within Turkey and the European diaspora since the late 1980s. It draws attention to two major actors, transnational Alevi networks and the state actively inducing and shaping the transformation of Alevism from secret to public culture in national and transnational public spheres. Networks, social and political opportunity structures, and communicative praxis are used to analyse this process. By taking transnational networks into account this article goes beyond traditional network analysis. Networks are articulators of new spaces to host culture and identity formation processes. Social actions are not just about networks and opportunity structures but also about the construction of meaning. The article investigates the communicative praxes of dissenting and consenting actors shaping Alevism in the arena of national and transnational publics.