Regulating Religious Field Vis-A Labour in Turkey

Abstract

This study deals with securitization, legitimization and exploitation of labour through the recourse to identity politics - mainly Islam - in Turkey since its foundation as a republic in 1923. It suggests that Islamic politics, which has been mobilized by the tripartite of the regime, has so far functioned to mitigate the conflict between labour and capital. While the secular Republic tended to keep aloof from a direct recourse to religion with respect to labour relations, the foundation of Diyanet in order to contain and control religion had been counter-productive due to the enlargement of religious domain in Turkey after the 1950s via this ecclesiastical state body. However, it was after the 1980s that the enlargement of religious domain has been the key reference point for the peripheral capitalists not only for establishing a unifying ideology for themselves but also for "instrumentalizing the piety" in the face of workers. The study suggests and concludes that each periodization in Turkish history formulated its unique strategy to tackle the issue, ranging from securitization to the incorporation of workers via corporatism and/or "instrumentalizing the piety".