Dietrich Jung - Böcker

Focusing on the political economy of so-called new wars, this book presents a series of studies that analyse the complexities of current warfare by moving from the global sphere to local spots of organised violence. It thus raises questions about the very idea of intra-state wars and shows that these wars are inseparably linked to the global economy and the world political order. In this way, this study also offes a unique contribution to understanding the post-September 11 world.This will be topical and controversial reading for students and scholars of international relations and international political economy, as well as experts in foreign policy, peace and conflict studies.

This book examines the development of peace research and explores its present challenges, focusing on the contribution made by the Copenhagen Peace Research Institute. The authors investigate how peace research relates to security studies and international relations, providing a comprehensive study of conceptual innovations and a discussion of security analysis in the European context.

Since the early weeks of the so-called Arab Spring, high hopes for democratic, social, and political change in the Middle East have been met with varying degrees of frustration.

How is one authentically" modern? Substantively drawing on contemporary social theory, this book investigates the multiplicity of answers that Muslims have given to this question since the end of the nineteenth century. Through six historical and thematic case studies the chapters examine the historical evolution of multiple modernities within Islam. The book argues that we can observe the rise and spread of a relatively hegemonic idea according to which the relation to Islamic traditions bestows projects of Muslim modernities with cultural authenticity. At the same time, it provides an interpretation of this specifically Islamic discourse of modernity as an inherent part of global modernity in conceptual terms understood as the emergence of world society.Key FeaturesInterprets modern Muslim history as an integral part of global modernityPresents a unique combination of social theory with Islamic studiesCritically revises Eisenstadt's concept of multiple modernitiesCombines two distinct concepts of world society with theories of social emergenceSix case studies give an account on the multiple modernities within IslamA theoretically informed fresh view on the construction of modern Muslim identitiesBased on more than 30 years of experience in Muslim countries"

How is one 'authentically' modern? Substantively drawing on contemporary social theory, this book investigates the multiplicity of answers that Muslims have given to this question since the end of the nineteenth century. Through six historical and thematic case studies, the chapters examine the historical evolution of multiple modernities within Islam. The book argues that we can observe the rise and spread of a relatively hegemonic idea according to which a relation to Islamic traditions bestows projects of Muslim modernities with cultural authenticity. At the same time, the book provides an interpretation of this specifically Islamic discourse of modernity as an inherent part of global modernity in conceptual terms understood as the emergence of world society.

According to simplistic textbook knowledge about Edward Said’s Orientalism, there was an intimate complicity between oriental studies and colonial domination. Since its first publication in 1978, the allegations of Orientalism, the sophisticated polemic of a learned academic and public intellectual from the United States, have become conventional wisdom about an entire scholarly field. In analyzing the origins and rise of the academic discipline of Islamic studies, this book challenges this fundamentally reductive and pejorative interpretation of European scholarship on Islam.Applying both macro- and micro level perspectives, the book investigates the complexities of the relationship between religion, science, and colonial politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this way, it revisits and challenges the questionable truism of an almost complete alignment of Islamic studies with colonialism. Rather than a critique of Said’s polemic, this book puts on trial the trivialization of his work by investigating the emergence of Islamic studies as a modern academic discipline. Which role did European imperialism play in the making of this scholarly discipline? To what extent does the life and work of some of the founding fathers of Islamic studies resemble the stereotypes of Saidian orientalism? How did the social boundary negotiations between religion, science, and politics take place in the historical context of European colonialism? In answering these questions, the book provides a historical sociology of knowledge of Islamic Studies.

According to simplistic textbook knowledge about Edward Said’s Orientalism, there was an intimate complicity between oriental studies and colonial domination. Since its first publication in 1978, the allegations of Orientalism, the sophisticated polemic of a learned academic and public intellectual from the United States, have become conventional wisdom about an entire scholarly field. In analyzing the origins and rise of the academic discipline of Islamic studies, this book challenges this fundamentally reductive and pejorative interpretation of European scholarship on Islam.Applying both macro- and micro level perspectives, the book investigates the complexities of the relationship between religion, science, and colonial politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this way, it revisits and challenges the questionable truism of an almost complete alignment of Islamic studies with colonialism. Rather than a critique of Said’s polemic, this book puts on trial the trivialization of his work by investigating the emergence of Islamic studies as a modern academic discipline. Which role did European imperialism play in the making of this scholarly discipline? To what extent does the life and work of some of the founding fathers of Islamic studies resemble the stereotypes of Saidian orientalism? How did the social boundary negotiations between religion, science, and politics take place in the historical context of European colonialism? In answering these questions, the book provides a historical sociology of knowledge of Islamic Studies.

In light of the ongoing public debate that focuses on differences between Islam and the West, this book suggests a change of perspective. It departs from the observation that both western Orientalists and Islamist activists have defined Islam similarly as an all-encompassing religious, political and social system. In shifting from differences to similarities, it leaves behind the increasingly circular debate about the true nature of Islam in which the Muslim religion has been represented either as intrinsically hostile to or as principally compatible with modern culture. Instead, it associates the evolution of a particularly essentialist image of Islam with a complex process of cross-cutting (self)-interpretations of Muslim and Western societies within an emerging global public sphere. Putting its focus on the life and work of a number of paradigmatic individuals, the book investigates the intellectual encounters and discursive interdependencies among western and Muslim intellectuals.In a historical genealogy it deconstructs the essentialist image of Islam in uncovering its conceptual foundations in the modern transformation of European and Muslim societies from the nineteenth century onwards. Thereby, the changing infrastructure of the global public sphere has facilitated the gradual popularization, trivialization, and dissemination of a previously elitist discourse on Islam and modernity. In this way, the idea of Islam as an all-encompassing system has been turned into accepted knowledge in the Western and Muslim worlds alike.

In light of the ongoing public debate that focuses on differences between Islam and the West, this book suggests a change of perspective. It departs from the observation that both western Orientalists and Islamist activists have defined Islam similarly as an all-encompassing religious, political and social system. In shifting from differences to similarities, it leaves behind the increasingly circular debate about the true nature of Islam in which the Muslim religion has been represented either as intrinsically hostile to or as principally compatible with modern culture. Instead, it associates the evolution of a particularly essentialist image of Islam with a complex process of cross-cutting (self)-interpretations of Muslim and Western societies within an emerging global public sphere. Putting its focus on the life and work of a number of paradigmatic individuals, the book investigates the intellectual encounters and discursive interdependencies among western and Muslim intellectuals.In a historical genealogy it deconstructs the essentialist image of Islam in uncovering its conceptual foundations in the modern transformation of European and Muslim societies from the nineteenth century onwards. Thereby, the changing infrastructure of the global public sphere has facilitated the gradual popularization, trivialization, and dissemination of a previously elitist discourse on Islam and modernity. In this way, the idea of Islam as an all-encompassing system has been turned into accepted knowledge in the Western and Muslim worlds alike.

Turkey's future will be shaped fundamentally by the fate of its Kemalist legacy. A range of ideological currents today - Kurdish nationalists, Islamists, and so-called neo-Ottomanists - are all challenging the received, and still dominant, Kemalist version of the country's history. This book argues that Turkey cannot meet adequately the challenges and opportunities which its Middle East location offers (both its near neighbours and its more distant Turkic cousins in the newly independent states of Central Asia) so long as its ruling elite and its politically influential military continue to deny the significant continuities between the country's imperial Ottoman past and the Kemalist project of the 20th century.The authors examine Turkey's attempts at modernization, starting with the Ottomans' own reform attempts and accelerating with the Kemalist Republic and the country's growing orientation towards the West since 1945. They look at the challenge to Kemalism that Islamism and Kurdish nationalism have posed more recently. And they explore the difficulties and possibilities that Turkey faces in its hinterland - its Arab and Persian neighbours, Central Asia, and Israel. How it plays out its role as a regional actor will, they argue, be decided by the outcome of the profound ideological and political conflicts within the country. More particularly, Turkey cannot take modernization and democratization further until it faces up to the authoritarian legacy that Ottoman political culture passed on to the Turkish Republic.

This book brings together theories of world society with poststructuralist and postcolonial work on modern subjectivity to understand the universalising and particularising processes of globalisation.

Since Edward Said’s publication of Orientalism in 1978, so-called Western social theory and its claim to universal analytical validity has been exposed to severe criticism. The authors critically reflect upon the concepts of so-called Western social theory by engaging with social science literature and social theory in Arabic.

Since Edward Said’s publication of Orientalism in 1978, so-called Western social theory and its claim to universal analytical validity has been exposed to severe criticism. Scholars from the field of postcolonial studies were most vocal in criticizing the Eurocentric nature of the conceptual apparatus of the social sciences. Indeed, contemporary social theory almost exclusively refers to the historical experiences of Western Europe and North America. Yet what is the alternative to these Eurocentric frameworks? Many postcolonial critics use very few non-English sources and tend to focus on the deconstruction of European and American theories.The chapters of this volume provide a turn of perspective. The authors critically reflect upon the concepts of so-called Western social theory by engaging with social science literature and social theory in Arabic. Questions addressed include: What are the concepts, themes, and historical narratives in contemporary Arabic social theory? In which ways do Arab social theorists provide us with alternatives to the conceptual apparatuses employed by so-called Western social theory? To what extent are Arab and Western social theories entangled with each other?

This book combines contemporary discussions on modernity with the history of the Muslim world. This framework attempts to accommodate a core assumption of classical modernization theory – the global nature of modernity – with the pluralistic perspective of the rise of a multiplicity of historically concrete forms of modernities.

This book combines contemporary discussions on modernity with the history of the Muslim world. This framework attempts to accommodate a core assumption of classical modernization theory – the global nature of modernity – with the pluralistic perspective of the rise of a multiplicity of historically concrete forms of modernities.

This book brings together theories of world society with poststructuralist and postcolonial work on modern subjectivity to understand the universalising and particularising processes of globalisation.

Es will damit einen Beitrag zur sozialtheoretischen Diskussion um die Moderne leisten, der empirisch mit Hilfe von Daten aus der Geschichte des Nahen Ostens und des Islams untermauert wird.