Nostalgic paradigm in classical sociology and longing for golden age in Islamism [Klasik sosyolojide nostaljik paradigma ve i?slamcilikta asr-i saadet özlemi]

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the basic argument that sociology, as a science, emerged as an intellectual response to the lost sense of community during social and cultural changes. This argument carries the assumption that the dominating metaphors and perspectives of classical sociology are informed by conservatism. In sociology, this claim is supported by (both) well-known and ambivalent theoretical structures that are developed to explain the process of social change. This study aims to make a criticism of nostalgic sociology considering the idea that the fundamental assumptions of the ambivalent theoretical structure in sociology are nostalgic. Added to these, this study also aims to critically read the historical development of Islamism, one of the modern ideologies, with nostalgia and utopia. The suggestion of the article is that either classical sociology or Islamism -two subject appear differently in terms of their topics- gave similar intellectual reactions about the subject that they are unable to cope with 'the present' and producing a 'golden age' discourse as a solution to 'the present'. The argument of the study is that either the effort of idealizing 'the past' in classical sociology or the myth of coming back home in Islamism against cultural alienation and sense of loss which are lived in 'the present' are actually determined by sovereign modernity paradigm. © Published by Cumhuriyet University, Faculty of Theology, Sivas, 58140 Turkey.