In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

144 es JOURNAL OF MIDDLE EAST WOMEN'S STUDIES Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics Jenny B. White. Seattle: University ofWashington Press, 2002. xii + 299 pp. including chapter notes, bibliography and index. $35.00 cloth, $22.50 paperback. Reviewed by Christian Pond, Center for Middle Eastern & North African Studies, University of Michigan. In her intriguing ethnography Islamist Mobilization in Turkey: A Study in Vernacular Politics, Jenny B. White examines how Islamist political parties in Turkey have been able to mobilize their constituencies and add to their growing political power and popularity. Since the mid 1990s, Turkish Islamists have made significant political gains through the Welfare and Virtue parties and in 2002 won an overwhelming parliamentary victory under the banner of the AK party. In her examination of this trend, White draws upon over twenty years ofethnographic research among the inhabitants ofthe Ümraniye neighborhood in Istanbul, an area where the Islamists have had much support. The key to the Islamists' success, White maintains, is due to their successful engagement in "vernacular politics," which, she says, "is a value-centered political process rooted in local culture, interpersonal relations, and community networks, yet connected through civic organizations to national party politics" (27). Using vernacular politics, Islamists are able to tap into local networks of cooperation based upon horizontal ties of imece (mutual cooperation) and vertical ties of himaye (a paternalistic protection of the weak). Thus, their membership is based upon culturally appropriate networks of trust and cooperation capable of sustaining the Islamist movement even when the political party is banned (as happened to both the Welfare and Virtue Parties). In addition, Islamist success is bolstered by their ability to popularize —a process of"embedding ideas within local norms and values" (259)—the party's message. White's discussion of the organization of the Welfare Party in chapter six provides a clear example of how Islamists put vernacular politics to work. As White describes, "Welfare's Web" (180) was composed ofvarious civil and non-civil society organizations and individuals informally linked together by interpersonal relationships. Despite public assertions of formal autonomy, the municipality, foundations, and Welfare Party maintained informal social ties that allowed them to coordinate activities and cater effectively to the various groups within their constituency. Working "face to face" (210), the Welfare BOOK REVIEWS ea 145 Party was able to coordinate a diverse set of actors, all ofwhom framed the Islamist message "in terms of local moral conventions and solidarities" (210). In addition to party coordination, a key to the Islamists' success was based on their ability to mobilize and maintain a diverse following. This is demonstrated cogently in White's discussion of Islamic elitism, particularly among women. Islamic elitism, White suggests, "holds out to non-elite women implicit promises of socioeconomic mobility and professional opportunity , and then betrays that promise" (230). Thus while class discrimination and other inequities exist within the movement, the Islamists' employment of unifying symbols under a populist banner successfully mitigates many of the potential cleavages that threaten to divide the movement. In the last part of the book, White contrasts the success of the Islamists with the inability of secular activists to create a sustainable movement. Unlike the Islamists, the Kemalist secularists did not engage in vernacular politics nor did they popularize their message. Their refusal to engage in vernacular politics meant they didn't have access to the extensive, interpersonal networks the Islamists utilized. This ultimately resulted in the secularists' inability to mobilize wide-scale, sustained support. Islamist Mobilization in Turkey is a highly valuable addition to the anthropological scholarship examining the Islamic Trend.1 While many of these works have focused on such movements in the Arab world, relatively few studies have been done in Turkey, where, one might argue, Islamists have had the greatest political success in recent years. White's ethnography is also valuable in challenging the notion of Turkey as a completely Western-leaning , secular society. The topics covered in White's book are particularly timely considering the ongoing discussions between Turkey and European nations over the country's accession to the EU. However, while Jenny White's book does present an overall insightful and well-researched discussion of Islamist...

pdf

Share