Vernacularization of liberal civil society by transnational Islamist NGO networks

Abstract

Over the last two decades, informal Islamic networks have been re-establishing themselves as formal NGOs and building transnational coalitions. These newly formed faith-based NGOs retain their original agendas: promoting Islamic revival and global solidarity by supporting Muslim communities around the world. However, they now reposition themselves as 'civil society initiatives' and selectively appropriate the liberal civil society discourse. In this article, I analyse the discursive strategies that local actors undertake when they vernacularize external idea packages that challenge their cognitive preconceptions. The empirical findings of the article demonstrate that the ideological self-positioning of the local norm-taker is a key determinant of the vernacularization of micro processes. To reconcile the perceived normative conflict between political Islamist and liberal civil society frameworks, vernacularizers prune the civil society concept down to its associational and communitarian elements, discard its Western connotative associations, reconstruct the concept to match their institutional and cultural preconceptions, and claim its original ownership.

Turkey’s communicative authoritarianism

“…The funding for the social assistance programmes comes from various sources, including RTÜK, extra-budgetary funds and charity funds (Bozkurt, 2013). During the AKP period, charities and NGOs have received remarkable funding support and have been granted considerable autonomy – most of them are associated with Islamic philanthropy in and outside Turkey, and are linked to networks of business that have investments in the urban regeneration, construction and media fields (Atalay, 2016). The 2006 Information Society Plan introduced a project titled ‘Integrated Social Assistance Programs’, which required a digital infrastructure that would restore the data of beneficiaries, such as their incomes, pensions, work contracts, bank details and crime record.…”

Backtalk: Implementing United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in the Canadian Armed Forces

“…Norm translation has also been used to explore the contested process of implementing new gender policy. Constructivist IR scholars have utilized the concept of vernacularization to reconcile the ambitious goals of international legislation with the specificities of domestic processes of implementation (Acharya 2004;Atalay 2016;Merry 2006;Levitt & Merry 2009;Rajaram & Zararia 2009;Zwingel 2012 a ). Vernacularization emerged as a critique of trends in norm translation, particularly its "tendency to assert some form of homogenization, creolization or hybridization without explaining why or how it happens [and for] paying too little attention to how circulation and translation evolve over time" (Levitt & Merry 2009, 443).…”