Family and Religion/Secularity in Turkey and Germany
DFG Project Piety and Secularity Contested: Family and Youth Politics inpost-Kemalist “New Turkey”
DFG Humanities Group Multiple Secularities: Beyond the West, beyond
Modernities
Leipzig University, 25-26 January 2024Convenors
Markus Dressler (Institute for the Study of Religion/Modern Turkish Studies,Leipzig University)Tuğçe Özdemir (Cultural Sociology, Leipzig University)
Approach and Aims

In Turkey, the question of religion and secularism has been contested since thebeginning of the republic and is therefore politically very loaded. One domain, inwhich and through which this contestation is worked out is that of family. In thecourse of the republic, various socio-political actors from the far right to the far
left, from the secularist towards Islamist camps, draw on more or less specificconcepts of “family” as a means to express their political visions. Against thebackground of these public and political discourses and the policies that they
produced, the first aim of our workshop is to investigate empirical data on how
family is imagined and experienced by individuals and families within the fabricsof everyday life – with particular attention to the role of religion in theimaginations and experiences related to “family”. This includes the question of
how questions of religion/piety intersect with sexuality, gender, class, ethnicity,and age. Whereas Turkish secularism and counter-discourses have produced
strong binaries with regard to religion – i.e., secularity in terms of discursive
practices of distinction – in everyday life contexts distinctions are much less clear,leaving much room for grey zones and ambivalences. Through the lens of“family”, we would like to explore this tension between public discourses andpolicies and everyday life experiences with regard to religion and secularity.
The second aim of the workshop is to compare the sociological data from Turkey
on imaginations and experiences with regard to family and religion with data fromresearch on family in Germany. The comparison with Germany is interestingsince neither are religion and secularism very relevant and contested topics inpublic debates on German society, nor is there a similarly contested debate on
family (by itself and in relation to religion).
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Workshop Programme“Family and Religion/Secularity in Turkey and Germany”
Leipzig University, 25-26 January 2024

ScheduleThursday, 25 January 2024

13:30–14:00 Registration & Coffee
14:00–14:15 Opening and Introduction
Markus Dressler (Leipzig University)
14:15–17:35 Panel 1: Intergenerational Relations and Transmission ofFamily Values and Practices
Chair: Markus Dressler (Leipzig University)
14:15–15:15 Tuğçe Özdemir (Leipzig University)“Family Imaginations & Experiences in Daily Life and the Roleof Forms of Religiosity in Intergenerational Relations” (work inprogress)
15:15-16:15

Yıldırım Şentürk (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University)“Transmission of Values in the Family Settings” (work inprogress)

16:15–16:35 Coffee Break
16:35-17:35

Christel Gaertner & Linda Hennig (Münster University)“The role of the “narrative of choice” in parenting andnegotiations about religion in the family (work in progress)

19:00

Joint Dinner at PAN Restaurant

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Workshop Programme“Family and Religion/Secularity in Turkey and Germany”
Leipzig University, 25-26 January 2024
Friday, 26 January 2024
09:30–13:00 Panel 2: Family and Youth in the Negotiation of the Boundaries
Between Religious and Secular
Chair: Lena Dreier (Leipzig University)
09:30-10:30
Nil Mutluer (Leipzig University)“Gender, Family and Youth Policies in pro- capitalist and colonial
localities in Turkey: The Cases of Kayseri and Diyarbakir” (work inprogress)
10:30-11:30
Ülker Sözen (Leipzig University)“Marriage Advice on Turkish Social Media: Self-Help Gurus andReligious Discourses” (work in progress)
11:30–11:50 Coffee Break
11:50-12:50

Büşra Kırkpınar (Yıldız Technical University & Leipzig University)“Comparative Reflexivity of Individual Worldviews inContemporary Turkey: Ideological Distance or Public Interaction”(work in progress)

13:00-14:00

Lunch

14:00-16:30

Panel 3: Parenting and Family Relations in the Context ofReligiosity and Secularity
Chair: Monika Wohlrab-Sahr (Leipzig University)
Biray Kolluoğlu (Boğaziçi University)“Parenting and education: Navigating class, religiosity andsecularity in Istanbul” (completed work)
Hagen Findeis & Anna-Maria von Elm & Lena Dreier (HalleUniversity)
Religiosity in East Germany. Families as Contexts of Transmission,Interruption and Reconstitution (work in progress)

14:00-14:40

14:40-15:40

15:40-16:00

Coffee Break

16:00-16:40

Aslıgül Aysel (Münster University)"From 'Guest Worker' to 'German Turk' – Examination of theTransformation in Turkish Life Worlds in Duisburg" (completedwork)
Concluding Discussion

16:40-17:10

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