Book presentation
— hybrid event —
30 April 2024, 5:00 pm
Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin (GER)
Tatjana Thelen and Sana Chavoshian (ZMO) join a discussion of Hilal Alkan’s new book “Welfare as Gift: Local Charity, Politics of Redistribution, and Religion in Turkey”.
Based on an ethnography of charitable organizations in contemporary Turkey, this monograph examines the ways in which the redistributive task of poverty alleviation and welfare provision has been taken over by gift networks. It offers an in-depth analysis of the relationships between donors, volunteers, and beneficiaries, as well as an exploration of the historical institutional framework and religious imaginary that inform these organizations. Through this account it traces the expansion of the Turkish welfare regime and its transformation towards a neoliberal populism.