Review articles

Eren Duzgun

Research output: Journal PublicationReview articlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

Yildiz Atasoy's recent survey of state transformation in Turkey reiterates some of the most typical shortcomings of Marxian approaches to the Ottoman/Turkish modernisation. This involves an ahistorical conception of capitalism reduced to commercial expansion and a structuralist method that transhistoricises the historical differentiation of the economic from the political. Combined together in Atasoy's book, capitalism no longer exists in the shape of specific social relations and particular juridical/political forms, but rather it precedes and determines them. Consequently, social struggles over production and reproduction are separated from and no longer implicated within struggles over the redefinition of citizenship, secularism and democracy. An implicit economic determinism eventually prevails, reproducing functionalist modes of argumentation. Based on a theoretical and historical critique of Atasoy's argument, this review seeks to provide new insights into Ottoman/Turkish modernity from a Political Marxist perspective.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)181-200
Number of pages20
JournalHistorical Materialism
Volume20
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Islam
  • Ottoman Empire
  • Political Marxism
  • Turkey
  • capitalism
  • modernity
  • neoliberalism

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Economics,Econometrics and Finance
  • History
  • Political Science and International Relations
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Sociology and Political Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Review articles'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this