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Museum Politics in Turkey Under the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP): the Case of the Istanbul Museum of the History of Science and Technology in Islam

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Abstract

Under the Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by its leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish State and society at large have been subject to significant changes. Besides the recent increasing authoritarianism of the government, Islam made its way through politics like never before, and a new national ideology promoted by the AKP, Turkish Muslim Nationalism, laid the cultural foundations for a new Turkey and new Turks. In this paper, I put forward the claim that new national museums play a relevant role in shaping this new Turkey. In particular, they function as performative cabinets exhibiting the national ideology of the ruling party. I have looked into one of these museums, the Istanbul Museum of the Science and Technology in Islam, researching the links between the AKP, which promotes Turkish Muslim nationalism, and new museums, which exhibit it. The outcome of this study suggests that the IMSTI functioned as the resource and the host of national symbols manufactured by and within the ruling class to be supplied to the masses. The political class, represented here by the AKP, commissioned the museum, whereas cultural agents that shared the party’s political ideology were appointed to make it. This collaboration benefited both parts, so much so that profit seems to have been a crucial ingredient in the making of this museum.

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Notes

  1. For an account of Turkish authoritarianism under the AKP read: Öktem K. and Akkoyunlu K. (2016) Exit from democracy: illiberal governance in Turkey and beyond. In Journal Southeast European and Black Sea Studies

    Volume 16, 2016 - Issue 4. Pages 469–480; Öktem K. and Akkoyunlu K. (2016) Existential insecurity and the making of a weak authoritarian regime in Turkey. Journal Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. Volume 16, 2016 - Issue 4. Pages 505–527; Başer B. and Erdi Öztürk A. (2017) Authoritarian Politics in Turkey: Elections, Resistance and the AKP. I.B. Tauris. London and New York City. Alkan A. (2015) New Metropolitan Regime of Turkey: Authoritarian Urbanization via (Local) Governmental Restructuring. In Lex Localis - Journal of Local Self-Government. Vol. 13. No. 3. pp. 849–877. July 2015; Eraydin A. and Taşan-Kok T. (2014) State Response to Contemporary Urban Movements in Turkey: A Critical Overview of State Entrepreneurialism and Authoritarian Interventions. In Antipode Volume 46. Issue 1. January 2014. Pages 110–129; Yesil B. (2016) Media in new Turkey: The origins of an authoritarian neoliberal state. University of Illinois Press

  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egd5irl0yGI (I have tried to access this video on January 30, 2018 and I have found it was terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement. However, by typing “Fuat Sezgin, Batı Uygarlığı” on YouTube, one finds new links to Sezgin’s interview)

  3. University dedicated to the Sultan which conquered Istanbul.

  4. http://en.ibtav.org/page/7/about

  5. http://en.ibtav.org/page/3/about-us

  6. For the role of the Imam Hatip Schools in Turkey read: Aşlamacı I and Kaymakcan R. (2016) A model for Islamic education from Turkey: the Imam-Hatip schools. British Journal of Religious Education. Volume 39, 2017 - Issue 3. Pp. 279–292.

  7. http://www.risalehaber.com/prof-fuat-sezgin-sadece-allaha-inanacaksin-baska-hicbir-seye-degil-286921h.htm or full video of the interview at http://www.sabah.com.tr/webtv/turkiye/prof-dr-sezgin-sadece-allaha-inanacaksin-baska-hicbir-seye-degil

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Sociology, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Lorenzo Posocco

  2. Department of Political Science, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France

    Lorenzo Posocco

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  1. Lorenzo Posocco
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Correspondence to Lorenzo Posocco.

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Posocco, L. Museum Politics in Turkey Under the Islamic Justice and Development Party (AKP): the Case of the Istanbul Museum of the History of Science and Technology in Islam. Int J Polit Cult Soc 32, 83–103 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10767-018-9283-0

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