TURKISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Volume 39 – Number 1



Rethinking Durkheim



Editors

Ass. Prof. Dr. Aynur ERDOĞAN COŞKUN

(Istanbul University, Department of Sociology)



Prof. Philip SMITH

(Yale University, Department of Sociology)





Deadline for Article Submissions

May 15, 2018



First published in 1917, The Turkish Journal of Sociology is a publication of the Department of Sociology of the Istanbul University Faculty of Letters, the first and leading sociology department in Turkey. The Turkish Journal of Sociology is a peer-reviewed, triannually published journal covered by international indexes such as Clarivate Analytics Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI), ProQuest CSA Sociological Abstracts and EBSCO SocINDEX (for further information, see http://tjs.istanbul.edu.tr/en). The first of the two issues of Turkish Journal of Sociology to appear in 2019 will address the rethinking of Emile Durkheim for the sociologists in particular and for the social sciences in general.

For many years dismissed as a functionalist and conservative, the past two decades have seen a revival of interest in Durkheim’s work. This has been accompanied by readings that see him a cultural theorist with insights on ritual, symbol and collective representation. His political sociology has attracted new attention. Durkheim has been depicted as a theorist of modernity, morality and difference, as having core insights on the relationship of the individual to the collectivity, and as an advocate of the secular state. The questions and theories discussed by Durkheim in the nation-state era of the Third Republic are now relevant for use or revision on global scale.

In Turkish case, considerations on Durkheim will likely require talking through a distinctive modernization experience that has both embraced and questioned the wisdom of societal differentiation. From the perspective of a history of ideas the subject of how Durkheim was understood in the last two decades of Ottoman Empire and the early years of Republic of Turkey –in spite of the fact that there are many debates on this– has not been conclusively addressed to date.

Papers can address, but are certainly not limited to, the following themes:

New interpretations and conceptions of Durkheim.
The intellectual and institutional history of Durkheim reception and influence in Turkey.
Applications of Durkheim’s analytic or normative ideas to Turkish society and politics.
Case studies employing Durkheim’s ideas and concepts to make sense of empirical materials, to explain social outcomes or to offer new insights on old debates.

Manuscripts should be submitted in English through http://tjs.istanbul.edu.tr/en/online-submission-instructions. Work submitted for potential inclusion must be a complete manuscript that adheres to the Turkish Journal of Sociology’s submission requirements, which may be found on the journal’s official website: http://tjs.istanbul.edu.tr/en/notes-for-authors For further questions regarding the issue please contact with Prof. Philip Smith, Ph.D. at philip.smith@yale.edu or with Ass. Prof. Aynur Erdoğan Coşkun at aynur.erdogan@istanbul.edu.tr. You are kindly requested to direct your technical questions to: sosyolojidergi@istanbul.edu.tr