Engineering self and civil society: the promise of charity in Turkey

ABSTRACT

In this article, I will show that charitable giving, along with charitable associations’ institutional practices, fashion moral, productive, and religious citizens through both intent and practice of giving. Thereby the individual donors and associations not only legitimize their aim of social transformation with reference to religious norms of giving, but at the same time also introduce new, professionalized (rationalized) forms to further develop, track, institutionalize and regulate these norms. If we define religious engineering as ‘active and conscious ways of working on the future shape of a given society’(cf. Spies and Schrode, Introduction), this article argues that the work of charitable associations and the processes of charitable giving in Turkey are practices of ‘religious engineering’ and should be analysed as such. I do this analysis through a direct focus on activities, ideas, and implementations of charitable associations and individuals.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious engineering
• charity
• Middle East
• civil society
• neoliberalism
• Turkey
• aid

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Damla Isik is an associate professor of anthropology at Regis University Department of Anthropology, Sociology, and Criminal Justice. She has done research on women and labour in Turkey as well as charity, aid delivery, and charitable giving in Turkey. Her new research looks at women’s labour and participation in women’s cooperatives, agricultural production, and new forms of urbanization in Turkey.

Notes

1 Abu Hamid (c.1056–1111) was one of the most prominent and influential philosophers, theologians, jurists, and mystics of Sunni Islam. As a scholar and a theologian, he contributed significantly to the development and integration of Sufism to mainstream Islam. For more on him and his works, please see https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-ghazali/.

2 Vakıfs (Ar. waqf) are asset-based entities established with a minimum of one donor, an endowment, and a purpose to advance the common or public good. In the Ottoman Empire, vakıfs were pious endowments or foundations constituted for a purpose identified in their mission statement, which might range from building a mosque to providing for the poor in a specific neighborhood. I extensively discuss the concept of vakıf that is mentioned here in Isik 2014, 307–327. In fact, some of the data and discussions here have been taken from that article as well as Isik 2012, 57–70 and reinterpreted within the theoretical umbrella of religious engineering.

3 Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam and central to being a good Muslim. It is the obligation that individuals have to donate a certain portion of their wealth each year in order to purify their yearly earnings that exceed what is required for the essential needs of a person or a family. Through zakat, one repays a kind of debt and fulfills a duty by being charitable to the poor and the needy. Aside from the mandatory zakat, other types of voluntary generosity are also highly valued in Islam.

4 For a comprehensive survey of early Turkish neoliberalism during the times of Turgut Özal, see Öniş 2004, 113–134.

5 This is discussed in detail in White, Jenny. 2002. Islamist Mobilization in Turkey. Washington: University of Washington Press.

6 Muhtar is the elected head of government of a village or of a neighborhood within a town.

7 This national day, April 23 Children's Day, is a widely celebrated event in Turkey. The founder and first President of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, made this day a national holiday to emphasize that children are the future of the Republic and they should be celebrated. Schools participate in week-long ceremonies marked by performances in all fields in small and large stadiums all over the country.