European and Turkish modernities in the perspective of comparative historical sociology

This study aims at analyzing the emergence and the development of modernity and also its contemporary era within the historical-sociological perspective. This analysis is achieved on the comparision of the experiences of modernity in European and Turkish contexts. First, the foundations of modern society are revealed and then secondly the principles that direct modernity are analyzed with regard to their relations to basic human spheres. While it is argued that modernity is a human condition on its own, it is also argued in this respect that modernity and capitalism are separate phenomena; it is shown that capitalism refers to a specific model of economic modernity. Since modernity originally emerged in the West, many observers called the modernization processes of non-western societies Westernization and in this thesis it is argued against this understanding by advocating the theory of multiple modernities. It is in this respect that Turkish modernity provides an important model in order to conceptualize that there are different modernities. Within this scope, the experiences of modernity in Europe and Turkey are compared with regard to the developments within the three basic human spheres; politics, economy and culture. In these two geographical contexts the construction, institutionalization and regression of modernity are discussed within the historical perspective and as a conclusion the contemporary era of European and Turkish modernities is explained according to an argument which sees a regression in the recent history of modernity.