The Power of Culture: Religious Conservatism and Cultural Sovereignty

Göksel Aymaz

Abstract: In this article, the issue of “cultural power”, which is constantly kept on the agenda by representatives of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) at various levels, is examined. This issue expresses the AKP’s desire to carry its power in the political field to the cultural field. The desire for cultural power finds its explanatory universe in the process by which the AKP, whose frame of reference is the “religious conservative”, consolidates its political position in Turkey’s recent history determined by secular modernization. In the article, it is stated that the conservatism of the AKP, integrated into the capitalist world order, has led to a significant cultural habitus transformation, especially among the urban religious people, and has made daily life conservative to a certain extent, but it has not been able to achieve similar results in the part of the cultural field that emphasizes artistic production such as literature, cinema, theater and music, and that this situation It was emphasized that it made the power debate important for the opposition as well. Based on these, it is concluded that culture, which is actually the field of conflicting attitudes and values, can be an area of dialogue between religious conservatism and secular modernity.

Keywords: Cultural ower, Religious conservatism, Secular modernity, Cultural conflict, Cultural opposition

Göksel Aymaz
DOI: 10.29224/insanveinsan.1459771
Year 11, Issue 38, Summer 2024


Tam metin / Full text
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