Abstract
The 2011 Arab uprisings were initially hailed by many observers in the Western world as the harbinger of a “modern” Middle East. Finally, it was believed, the hegemony of corrupt autocrats and the prolonged “dark age” of the Arab world were coming to an end. In the context of this narrative that emerged in the wake of the Arab uprisings, the so-called Turkish model gained popularity as a potential guide for the modernization of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Accordingly, modernization has been defined as the inevitable path to a liberal democratic, free-market capitalist, and secular society within non-Western settings. This conceptualization is highly Eurocentric as the contents of modernization are solely limited to the contemporary characteristics of social, economic, and political life in Western Europe and Northern America. Moreover, the possibility that the complex transformation trajectories of non-Western societies may not produce the same outcomes as in the Western experience is completely overlooked.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
For a detailed study of the Eurocentrism of Western governments and institutions, see Borg (2016), Salt (2012), Azeez (2014), and Hollis (2012). For a detailed study of the Eurocentrism of Western mainstream media outlets such as The Economist, Foreign Affairs, and The Guardian, see Salaita (2012), Shihade et al. (2012), and Malak and Salem (2015).
- 3.
- 4.
For notable postcolonial works, see Fanon (1952, 1961), Foucault (1972), Said (1978), Spivak (1985, 1988), Chakrabarty (2000, 2002), and Bhambra (2007). For notable postcolonial works within the Middle East area studies in particular, see Amin (2009, 2016), Dabashi (2012), Ayubi (1995), Prashad (2012), and Lockman (2010).
- 5.
The year the European colonization of the New World began after Christopher Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in search of a trade route to the East Indies.
- 6.
- 7.
- 8.
See, for example, Jones (2013) for an archetypical Eurocentric narrative on Islamism in the MENA.
- 9.
Persian mathematicians, Muhammad ibn al-Khwarizmi and Omer Khayyam, played key roles in the development of the contemporary understanding of algebra.
- 10.
Nevertheless, in contrast to Western mainstream media and governments, the Western academia has long been dominated by vocal critics of Eurocentrism such as Gayatri Spivak, Noam Chomsky, Homi K. Bhabha, and Dipesh Chakrabarty.
- 11.
For a comprehensive study of the role of neoliberalization process in triggering the 2011 uprisings in MENA, see Hanieh (2013). This is a point that is also made in the contribution of Cemal Burak Tansel in this volume.
References
Abourahme, N., & Jayyusi, M. (2011). The will to revolt and the spectre of the real: Reflections on the Arab movement. City, 16(5), 625–630.
Acharya, A., & Buzan, B. (2010). Non-Western international relations theory: Perspectives on and beyond Asia. New York: Routledge.
Ajami, F. (2012, March 1). The Arab Spring at once: A year of living dangerously. Foreign Affairs.
Akyol, M. (2012). The Turkish model: Marching to Islamic liberalism. Cairo Review, 4, 68–83.
Al-Azm, S. (2011). The Turkish model: A view from Damascus. Turkish Studies, 12(4), 633–641.
Amin, S. (2009). Eurocentrism (2nd ed.). New York: Monthly Review Press.
Amin, S. (2016). The reawakening of the Arab world: Challenge and change in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Aras, B., & Akarçeşme, S. (2012). Turkey and the Arab Spring. International Journal, Winter, 39–51.
Atasoy, S. (2011). The Turkish example: A model for change in the Middle East. Middle East Policy, XVIII(3), 86–100.
Ayubi, N. (1995). Over-stating the Arab state: Politics and society in the Middle East. London: I.B. Tauris.
Azeez, G. (2014). Western notions of Middle Eastern revolutions: Counter-revolutionary discourse from Mahdi to the Arab Spring. In B. Clark, A. Ghafar, & J. Mortiz (Eds.), The contemporary Middle East: Revolution or reform (pp. 64–86). Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Bengio, O. (2012). Are Iraq and Turkey models for democratization? Middle East Quarterly, 19(3), 53–62.
Bhambra, G. K. (2007). Rethinking modernity: Postcolonialism and the sociological imagination. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bilgin, P. (2016). Thinking postcolonially about the Middle East: Two moments of anti-Eurocentric critique. Odense: Center for Mellemostudier.
Blaut, J. M. (1993). The colonizer’s model of the world: Geographical diffusionism and Eurocentric history. New York: The Guilford Press.
Borg, S. (2016). The Arab uprisings, the liberal civilizing narrative and the problem of orientalism. Middle East Critique, 25(3), 211–227.
Brownlee, B. J., & Ghiabi, M. (2016). Passive, silent and revolutionary: The “Arab Spring” revisited. Middle East Critique, 25(3), 299–316.
Chakrabarty, D. (2000). Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial thought and historical difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Chakrabarty, D. (2002). Habitations of modernity: Essays in the wake of subaltern studies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Dabashi, H. (2012). The Arab Spring: The end of postcolonialism. London: Zed Books.
Dadush, U., & Dunne, M. (2011). American and European responses to the Arab Spring: What’s the big idea. The Washington Quarterly, 34(4), 131–145.
Dede, A. Y. (2011). The Arab uprisings: Debating the “Turkish Model”. Insight Turkey, 13(2), 23–32.
Dickens, C. (1838). Oliver Twist. London: Richard Bentley.
Fanon, F. (1952). Black skin, white masks. London: Pluto Press.
Fanon, F. (1961). The wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press.
Foucault, M. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge. London: Tavistock.
Frank, A. G. (1968). Capitalism and underdevelopment in Latin America. New York: Monthly Review Press.
Fukuyama, F. (1992). The end of history and the last man. London: Penguin.
Göksel, O. (2012). Assessing the Turkish model as a guide to the emerging democracies in the Middle East. Ortadoğu Etütleri, 4(1), 99–120.
Göksel, O. (2013). Deconstructing the discourse of models: The “Battle of Ideas” over the post-revolutionary Middle East. Insight Turkey, 15(3), 157–170.
Göksel, O. (2014). Perceptions of the Turkish model in post-revolutionary Tunisia. Turkish Studies, 15(3), 476–495.
Halliday, F. (1993). Orientalism and its critics. British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, 20(2), 145–163.
Hanieh, A. (2013). Lineages of revolt: Issues of contemporary capitalism in the Middle East. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
Hobson, J. M. (2009). What have the Muslims ever done for us? Islamic origins of Western civilization. In R. K. Kanth (Ed.), The challenge of Eurocentrism: Global perspectives, policy, and prospects (pp. 217–235). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hobson, J. M. (2012). The Eurocentric conception of world politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hollis, R. (2012). No friend of democratization: Europe’s role in the genesis of the Arab Spring. International Affairs, 88(1), 81–94.
Jones, S. G. (2013). The mirage of the Arab Spring: Deal with the region you have, not the region you want. Foreign Affairs, 92(1), 55–63.
Kayadibi, S., & Birekul, M. (2011). Turkish democracy: A model for the Arab world. Journal of Islam in Asia, 8(3), 255–273.
Kirişçi, K. (2011). Turkey’s “Demonstrative Effect” and the transformation of the Middle East. Insight Turkey, 13(2), 33–55.
Kubicek, P. (2013). Debating the merits of the “Turkish Model” for democratization in the Middle East. Alternatives: Turkish Journal of International Relations, 12(3), 166–180.
Laclau, E., & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and socialist strategy: Towards a radical democratic politics. London: Verso Books.
Lambropoulos, V. (1993). The rise of Eurocentrism: Anatomy of interpretation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Lewis, B. (1982, June 24). The question of orientalism. New York Review of Books.
Lockman, Z. (2010). Contending visions of the Middle East: The history and politics of orientalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
London, J. (1903). The people of the Abyss. London: Macmillan.
Lynch, M. (2011, November 28). The big think behind the Arab Spring. Foreign Policy.
Malak, K., & Salem, S. (2015). Re-orientalizing the Middle East: The power agenda setting post-Arab uprisings. Middle East – Topics & Arguments (META), 4, 93–109.
Matin, K. (2013). Recasting Iranian modernity: International relations and social change. London: Routledge.
Mullin, C., & Pallister-Wilkins, P. (2015). Introduction: The West Asian and North African uprisings and the limits of liberal governance. Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding, 9(2), 151–161.
Nafaa, H. (2011). The “Turkish Model” in the mirror of the Arab Spring. In Turkey and the Arab Spring: Implications for Turkish foreign policy from a transatlantic perspective (pp. 37–44). Washington, DC: German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Orwell, G. (1939). Coming up for air. London: Victor Gollancz.
Pace, M., & Cavatorta, F. (2012). The Arab uprisings in theoretical perspective: An introduction. Mediterranean Politics, 17(2), 125–138.
Prashad, V. (2012). Arab Spring, Libyan Winter. Edinburgh: AK Press.
Rodinson, M. (1973). Islam and capitalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
Roy, O. (2012). The transformation of the Arab world. Journal of Democracy, 23(3), 5–18.
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
Salaita, S. (2012). Corporate American media coverage of Arab revolutions: The contradictory message of modernity. Interface, 4(1), 131–145.
Salt, J. (2012). Containing the “Arab Spring”. Interface, 4(1), 54–66.
Samaan, J.-L. (2013). The rise and fall of the “Turkish Model” in the Arab world. Turkish Policy Quarterly, 12(3), 61–69.
Sayyid, B. S. (1997). A fundamental fear: Eurocentrism and the emergence of Islamism. London: Zed Books.
Shihade, M. (2012). On the difficulty in predicting and understanding the Arab Spring: Orientalism, Euro-centrism, and modernity. International Journal of Peace Studies, 17(2), 57–70.
Shihade, M., Fominaya, C. F., & Cox, L. (2012). The season of revolution: The Arab Spring and European mobilizations. Interface, 4(1), 1–16.
Shilliam, R. (2011). International relations and non-Western thought: Imperialism, colonialism and investigations of global modernity. London: Routledge.
Sinclair, U. (1927). Oil! New York: Albert & Charles Boni.
Spivak, G. C. (1985). Subaltern studies: deconstructing historiography. In R. Guha (Ed.), Subaltern studies IV (pp. 330–363). Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Spivak, G. C. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In D. Brydon (Ed.), Postcolonialism: Critical concepts in literary and cultural studies (pp. 1427–1477). London: Routledge.
Taşpınar, Ö. (2011). The Turkish model and its applicability. In Turkey and the Arab Spring: Implications for Turkish foreign policy from a transatlantic perspective (pp. 7–14). Washington: German Marshall Fund of the United States.
Taşpınar, Ö. (2014). The end of the Turkish model. Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, 56(2), 49–64.
Tekdemir, O. (2016). Conflict and reconciliation between Turks and Kurds: The HDP as an agonistic actor. Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, 16(4), 651–669.
Tekdemir, O. (2017). Constructing a social space for Alevi political identity: Religion, antagonism and collective passion. National Identities [Online]. Accessed February 14, 2017, from http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/6YJFmsS7CnX3JxApysfZ/full
The Economist. (2011, February 3). An end or a beginning?
Tuğal, C. (2016). The fall of the Turkish model: How the Arab uprisings brought down Islamic liberalism. London: Verso.
Ülgen, S. (2011). From inspiration to aspiration: Turkey in the New Middle East. Brussels: Carnegie Europe.
Voskressenski, A. D. (2017). Non-Western theories of international relations: Conceptualizing world regional studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wagner, P. (2012). Modernity: Understanding the present. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Wallerstein, I. (2004). World-systems analysis: An introduction. Durham: Duke University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Göksel, O. (2018). Eurocentrism Awakened: The Arab Uprisings and the Search for a “Modern” Middle East. In: Işıksal, H., Göksel, O. (eds) Turkey’s Relations with the Middle East. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59897-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59897-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-59896-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-59897-0
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)