Research programme on "Individual and society in the Mediterranean Muslim World"

This four-year research program is financed by the European Science Foundation, and gathers researchers in the humanities and social sciences across Europea in a joint effort to further the research on the topic of the "Indvidual" and "society" in this region. From the introduction to the programme:

"Questioning the position of the individual in one society or another means asking how this system functions in relation to its most central point. There are, in fact, very few variables around which groups of human beings organise themselves. These variables essentially depend upon the importance given to the individual. Going beyond a global theory of society based on a series of opposing terms (hierarchical organisation, egalitarianism, individualism, holism), Muslim societies give examples of different combinations. They may be egalitarian, yet holistic, as in certain tribal groups; they may also be unequal in terms of political power, but equal in religious terms. Studying the position attributed to the individual in fact comes back to asking ourselves about the totality of social mechanisms.

As a unit of reference, the individual is at the core of both sociological thinking and historical analysis. The evolution of contemporary historiography towards a histoire de mentalité open to micro-history and historical anthropology has brought with it the logical reappraisal of the individual as a privileged object of historical investigation. The time has come to apply the methodological questions and tools used to study European societies to the Muslim world.

Second, at present we know how to re-examine the great classical Islamic texts to identify both the individual and the practical functioning of an era, in spite of the conventions and stereotypes in which they are woven. The new developments in methods of investigation constitute an important step in the implementation of a programme which seeks to open new horizons of research on Muslim societies. A study of a long chronological period (from the Muslim expansion to the XIX° Century) must be desirable, it is necessary to focus on a number of significant key periods. These will have to be defined for each selected theme by the project teams. Nevertheless, the teams may wish to reflect on the probability, that the periods of emergence and assertion of the individual were cyclical.

The geographical area chosen as a field of inquiry only constitutes a single region when viewed from outside. It is Europe which gives it the sort of unity that the "I" gives to its "Other". Seen from inside, this "region" reveals itself to be composed of three distinct parts: the Maghrib, the Mashriq and Turkey. Each of these entities has its own history and socio-cultural characteristics. While they have certainly had interrelations at all levels, their histories have not had common "key periods" susceptible to being the object of a generalising vision.

Taking some overarching questions into consideration, six themes are proposed for the different European teams:

Forms of belonging and modes of social integration
Team Leader: Professor Klaus Kreiser (Bamberg, Germany)
Individuals become part of society through processes of socialisation. As they go through such processes, individuals become members of intermediary groups and institutions that contribute also- in different ways- to their individuality. Such groups/institutions encompass a person's life from birth to death. The varieties of "family" types and relationships will be addressed in the framework of families, as for example in the mamlûk system. Large formations, e.g., the army, the bureaucracy, and the 'ulamâ' corps, have their own modes of integration, which include elements of socialisation supplementary to formal education.

Norms and oppositions
Team Leader: Professor Walter Dostal (Wien, Austria)
All societies produce a corpus of legal norms aimed at regulating the functioning of the social body. One of the principal questions we wish to ask in this workshop is how the principles of law in Islamic lands - whether religious law as expressed through the shari'a, or secular law issuing from political authority - are translated into practice in daily life.

Power relationships
Team Leader: Professor Paul Dumont (Strasbourg, France)
One of the basic objectives of the team should be to measure the margin of freedom of movement which state structures leave to the individual in Muslim societies. What means are at the state's disposal in dictating its norms to the men and women who constitute the social fabric?

Modes of production
Team Leader: Professor Zafer Toprak (Istanbul, Turkey)
It must be admitted - if only hypothetically - that there is a close correlation between the modes of economic production and the role given to the individual in society. It therefore follows that these processes of individuation do not follow a uniform trajectory, and that there may be regression of individuation just as there exist economic discontinuance and involutions. However, the main issue is not to look at the individual in society in broad general terms, but to individuals as they relate to the process of economic change.

Images and representations
Team Leader: Professor Robin Ostle (Oxford, United Kingdom)
The research should revolve around two areas of a broad range of cultural activities: (a) Manifestations of the Consciousness of Self on the part of the Creative Individual (b) The Processes of Inspiration and Innovation, and the Legitimation of these processes. Taking into account the current state of research, the work will be further subdivided into: Material Culture, Literate Culture and Manifestations of Collective Memory.

Religious activity and experience
Team Leader: Professor Mercedes Garcia-Arenal (Madrid, Spain)
The special perspective of this thematic group is the personal religious experience (the individual psychological aspect) and its implications in the form of religious activities and movements. To this field belongs also the study of the role of the individual initiative and its functions. The field demands studies from the perspective of psychology and sociology of religion, but also that of philosophy of religion."

(A seventh group on the study of the contemporary period, in particular the Muslim minorities in Europe, has been added later).

Click here for the full version of the "programmatic text" (Acrobat file, 240K).

Junior scholarships (normally in the region 5-10.000 FF) will be available for those working in topics related to these. Further information available from the ESF. The applications for 1996-97 has been distributed, the next application deadline is expected in 1998.

At the joint conference in Granada 24-27 May 1996, the agenda of each of the mentioned groups were determined for the coming period, and some of them used the occasion to change the title of their group. Click on each to see a survey of the group discussion in Granda.

Click here for a survey of workshops and seminars held until 1998 and planned for 1999.

The chairman of the programme is Professor Robert Ilbert (Aix-en-Provence), and the research co-ordinator Dr. Randi Deguilhem (IREMAM, Aix, fax +33-4220 5111). In Strasbourg, the scientific secretary is Marianne Yagoubi, and the organizer of the programme Madelise Blumenroeder.

This is survey made for the benefit of Eurames members on the basis of the ISMM newsletter, to spread information about the project. The official home page for the ISMM project is at the ESF site in Strasbourg, which will keep the most up-to-date information. Click on the ESF logo below to consult this.

Responsible for this Web page is Knut S. Vikør. Last updated 25.1.99