The Dynamics of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy. Dealing with Divergence in Muslim Discourses and Islamic Studies

Simon, Udo Gerald; Langer, Robert

doi:10.1163/157006008x364758

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…Despite seeing the term heterodox as being "out of place in Islamic studies 1 ," Langer and Simon (2008) acknowledge its potential usefulness when ascribing it to power when they state, "it is not only political power that puts a religious authority in the position of orthodoxy, but religious authority also implies political power" (p. 281). Within the study of Islamic traditions, the notion of orthodoxy is crucial 2 to understand.…”

Section: Al Ale Evism Thr Vism Throughout Hist Oughout History and Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Alevis have gone back to describing themselves as "Kızılbaş" and have seemingly accepted the term heterodox as a way of description (Karolewski, 2008;Langer & Simon, 2008), which "Alevi intellectuals" played a part in achieving 10 (Langer & Simon, 2008). Despite the negative connotations associated with Kızılbaş, they are turning it back into the positive title as they remember it (Karolewski, 2008).…”

Section: Al Ale Evism Thr Vism Throughout Hist Oughout History and Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Langer & Simon (2008) state that the term "orthodoxy" has no "equivalent expression in Arabic" and that "the 'orthodoxy' versus 'heresy' scheme is denounced as a dichotomy of Eurocentric interpretive categories that fails to grasp the pluralism and complexity characteristic of Muslim religious life" (p. 273).…”

Section: Conclusion Onclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Saz as a Mode of Understanding Alevism

Muradoglu

2017

Voices

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Abstr Abstract actAn attempt to give insight into who Alevis are and what Alevism is, only further demonstrates the complexities that arise in doing so. However, this ambiguity is essential to discuss in terms of what this paper seeks to answer and that is: How can we comprehend the complexities of Alevism, using music and the saz as a mode of understanding that does not further reduce them to just representations of folklore? For those who identify as Alevis, music, and in particular the saz, play a central role in this formation of identity. Alevis in their religious rituals use music and dance, and thus their practices oppose that of a Sunni-majority Turkey. In this sense, when it comes to incorporating music in their religious traditions, the Turkish state undermines and therefore considers them illegitimate religious practices and deems them purely as cultural ones. Emphasizing the importance of the saz aims to bridge the cultural and religious implications of the instrument and thus metaphorically serve as also a bridge in understanding the complexities of defining Alevis. Contextualizing is imperative for understanding the performative piece at the end of the paper. This section aims to provoke the reader to think about what they have just read and listen to a piece composed by an Alevi saz player who was victim to one of the atrocities in Alevi history. The video is supplemented by the voices of my research participants who share their thoughts about the song-"Güle Yel Değdi"(Rose is Touched by the Breeze), the composer of the song-Hasret Gültekin, and about Alevism in general.

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Section: Al Ale Evism Thr Vism Throughout Hist Oughout History and Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Al Ale Evism Thr Vism Throughout Hist Oughout History and Withmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Saz as a Mode of Understanding Alevism

Muradoglu

2017

Voices

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“…However, the significance of this distinction goes well beyond the field of economics or cultural policy studies as far as we are concerned. From a constructivist point a view, it could be stated that any field of symbolic production may be observed through this distinction (Bourdieu, 2001(Bourdieu, , 1994: apart from the case of religion (Lake, 2001;Simon and Langer, 2008;Wilson, 2009) and ritual practices (Sangren, 1987), I can cite other academic fields such as sociology (Bernard, 1935;Calhoun and Antwerpen, 2007), political science (Gunnel, 2006), organizational management (Balmer et al, 2016), medical practice (Wardwell, 1972) or even heritage studies (Lixinski, 2015). This categorization generally contains implicit political assumptions that are infrequently made explicit.…”

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confidence: 99%

A relational approach to heterodox versus orthodox positions in contemporary cultural policy debates

Arfaoui

2020

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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This article examines the categories of orthodoxy and heterodoxy in regards to their use by many authors to position themselves within a research field. By doing so, it attempts to offer original methods for systematically addressing the morphology of a specific field of research. Particularly in economics, establishing one’s position in a field of research is often portrayed in terms of their alignment to orthodox or heterodox perspectives. However, this positioning within categories of “orthodoxy” or “heterodoxy” generally contain implicit political assumptions that are infrequently made explicit. The use of these categories typically implies dominant and dominated positions in a given research field, as well as suggests conformist versus nonconformist approaches to mainstream policy. Consequently, as these overburdened categories are rarely unpacked and explained by those who rely on them, delineating an orthodox versus heterodox viewpoint is nearly impossible. The hypothesis underlining this paper is that, more than the content of the academic production itself, belonging to the heterodoxy or the orthodoxy can be explained through the interpretation by the actors of their own position, as well as the type of relationship they cultivate in the field. The study is based on the exploration of more than 3000 pages of academic production on the topic of cultural policy, following an academic debate from 2000 onward between 11 different authors from various disciplines on the “creative industries turn of cultural policies”. After providing background on the case study as well as a presentation of the research sample and methodology, the paper explores whether a more granular interpretation of orthodox and heterodox positions in a research field can be described. Firstly, a discourse analysis will show how orthodox versus heterodox positions can be depicted through the subjective interpretations by authors of their own position in the field. In this debate, self-proclaimed heterodox-positioned authors tend to represent themselves as a minority in their research field, having difficulty accessing and influencing political decision-making processes. In contrast, orthodox-positioned authors tend to perceive their academic production as unpolitical and their analysis as objective and pragmatic in opposition to “militant” heterodox research. This first “subjective” analysis is followed by illustrating how this binary can be described “objectively” by systemizing citation links between the authors. The demonstration allows a clear segregation between orthodox and heterodox positions, but also displays significant variations in the relationship structure between both fields. The work concludes on the analytical possibilities brought by this relational approach. More importantly, this paper concludes that scientific dominance or political influence need not only to be explained as radical epistemological differences invoked by heterodox and orthodox positionality, but also by the interdependence of the authors belonging to these categories. Overall, this paper aims to draw attention to a potential research agenda that uses a more dynamic understanding and categorization of heterodoxy and orthodoxy.

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From the Islamic West to Cairo: Malikism, Ibn Tūmart, al-Ghazālī and al-Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ’s Death

Albarrán

2020

Mediterranean Perspectives

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The Dynamics of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy. Dealing with Divergence in Muslim Discourses and Islamic Studies

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

The Saz as a Mode of Understanding Alevism

The Saz as a Mode of Understanding Alevism

A relational approach to heterodox versus orthodox positions in contemporary cultural policy debates

From the Islamic West to Cairo: Malikism, Ibn Tūmart, al-Ghazālī and al-Qāḍī ‘Iyāḍ’s Death

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