Publication:
Protest, memory, and the production of 'civilized' citizens: two cases from Turkey and Lebanon

Thumbnail Image

School / College / Institute

Program

KU Authors

Co-Authors

Publication Date

Language

Embargo Status

NO

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Alternative Title

Abstract

This article studies the proliferation of discourses of rationality and responsibility among a particular elite social group in Lebanon and Turkey, as they remember student mobilization of their past. I offer these episodes of student mobilization as acts of citizenship that create and make use of rapturous moments in the histories of their countries and institutions. I extend these acts of citizenship to the contemporary context and study the ways in which they become part of discourses of citizenship in unexpected ways. I propose that these narratives draw upon a set of local practices that reflect meanings of citizenship, originating from Western discourses of liberalism, albeit following a different route. In the narratives, violence and irrationality become the defining features of politicized behavior, whereas being civilized epitomizes good manners and rationality. Such boundary-drawing exercises contribute to making conceivable exclusionary social orders based on the idea of a hierarchical distribution of reason and social utility.

Source

Publisher

Routledge

Subject

Political science, Citizenship, Sociology

Citation

Has Part

Source

Citizenship Studies

Book Series Title

Edition

DOI

10.1080/13621025.2012.667607

item.page.datauri

Link

Rights

Copyrights Note

Endorsement

Review

Supplemented By

Referenced By

0

Views

7

Downloads

View PlumX Details