Nation, Europe and Modernity

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyze the ways in which nation, Europe and modernity were articulated by the public in Turkey. It is often argued that the Turkish state has traditionally been the bearer of Western European values in a way that has modernized the social and political structures of the country. This top-down approach of straightforward modernization (Giddens, 1994) contradicts the definition of modernity (modernities) provided by Eisenstadt (2000, 2003, 2005a, 2006)¹ as a continual constitution and reconstitution of a multiplicity of political and cultural programs. To that effect, this chapter will argue that the prominent idea in the aftermath of the fall of the Ottoman Empire to align with the West and the applicability of the holistic Western model is challenged in the Turkish case vis-á-vis the emphasis on the need for a more inquisitive approach toward the substance of Westernization, Europeanization and modernization. The critical views and discourses identified at the state, non-state and private individual levels will provide a general framework as to the incongruence of the discourses, and assist us in explaining that the state is no longer the sole modernizing agent in Turkey and that collective and individual agents are critically involved in the modernization process with respect to their depiction of the human agency and cognitive processes. Relying on a qualitative field-research project conducted in Turkey in 2010, this chapter will discuss the perspectives of the relevant state actors, non-state actors and private individuals on the content of the notions of nation, Europe and modernity.