From Culture to Religion: Reframing Alevism for Recognition in Germany

Sökefeld, Martin (2022): From Culture to Religion: Reframing Alevism for Recognition in Germany. In: Özkul, Derya und Markussen, Hege (Hrsg.): The Alevis in Modern Turkey and the Diaspora: Recognition, Mobilisation and Transformation. Edinburgh Studies in Modern Turkey, S. 129-146

Abstract

Germany is home to the largest community of Anatolian Alevis outside of Turkey. Alevis migrated to Germany first as laborers and later also as political refugees. In the late 1980s, around the same time as Alevis in Turkey, they started to form their organizations and to demand recognition from their societies. Three decades later, legal recognition has been achieved in Germany. What is interesting is that while the claim for recognition was initially voiced mainly as the demand to acknowledge the Alevi culture, Alevis ended up being recognized in Germany as a religious community. The most significant symbol of recognition as a religious community is obtaining the right to teach Alevi religious classes in schools. Employing the concepts of “opportunity structures” and “regimes of incorporation,” the chapter analyzes the shift from “culture” to “religion” in a crucial phase of organized Alevism in Germany.

• Dokumententyp: Buchbeitrag
• Keywords: Alevis; Alevism; politics of recognition; diaspora; mobilisation
• Fakultät: Kulturwissenschaften > Department für Kulturwissenschaften und Altertumskunde > Ethnologie
• Themengebiete: 300 Sozialwissenschaften > 300 Sozialwissenschaft, Soziologie
• ISBN: 978-1-4744-9202-7
• Sprache: Englisch