Social sciences from the middle of Tahrir

CAIRO

We are at Cairo University to hold the second Arab-Turkish Social Sciences Congress (ATCOSS). At the second ATCOSS, held at Cairo University, whose first we had held in Ankara about 15 months ago with the participation of nearly 200 academics from the Arab world, about 50 academics from Turkey are taking part, presenting papers, and about as many to watch.

The congress's opening speeches and concept panel were held in the historic Cairo Conference Hall, which Egyptians began to call Obama Hall after Obama gave a speech there. The Egyptian Minister of Science Prof. Nadia Zakhary, the Palestinian Minister of Culture and Sports Muhammad al-Madhun, and Deputy Prime Minister Prof. Beşir Atalay each took part in the opening with a speech. The concept panel was held in the same hall, with talks by Prof. İhsan Dağı, Prof. Seyfeddin Abdülfettah, Prof. Behij Mula Huech and Prof. Doğu Ergil. Although the 3,000-seat conference hall was not filled, there was great interest in the conference from academics and students.

The idea of ATCOSS had taken shape after long deliberations that we held, with Prof. Nadia Mustafa and Pakinam El-Sharkawy, political science teachers at Cairo University, and Assoc. Prof. Ahmet Uysal of Osmangazi University, on the need in the field of social sciences for a social science that had been able to free itself from Orientalist or neo-Orientalist approaches, on the need for Arab and Turkish social scientists to get to know and understand each other more directly, and even to develop perspectives in the social sciences more familiar to each other. About two years ago we set to work by forming the Congress's secretariat within the Institute for Strategic Thinking.

In December 2010 we were privileged to hold the first in Ankara. The title of the 1st Congress had been chosen as "Culture and Middle East Studies," precisely to focus on the problems arising from these paradigms and perspectives. A selection from the papers presented has already formed a considerable literature: two volumes in Arabic, one in Turkish and one in English.

The time between the second ATCOSS held in Cairo and the first is only 15 months. But Deputy Prime Minister Prof. Beşir Atalay, who took part in both congresses by giving the opening speech and has followed the congress process with interest and support from the beginning, made in his opening speech this time words that amounted to a striking observation about the ATCOSS process. Atalay said:

"When we look back quickly, only 15 months have passed between the two congresses, but we all see what great changes have taken place in the meantime. Indeed, looking at it from this angle, we also see what a perfect timing this social science congress has coincided with, having had the chance to witness history. Getting this close to history and witnessing events from the very midst of historical change is not granted to every social scientist, let alone every social science congress.

Between these two congresses the Arab world and our region have gone through a very radical process of change. Even doing the sociology of what has happened in the Arab world in the last 15 months is an important task in itself. Even a comparison between the subjects of the papers presented at this congress 15 months ago and the subjects of the papers to be presented here today will be interesting enough."

Truly, at this moment when Tahrir sits at the very center of world history, holding a social science congress with the actors of the process is, just as Atalay said, like direct participation in history.

At the end of the 1st congress we had set the subject of the 2nd as "The non-governmental actors of change in the Middle East." Truth be told, we had not at all reckoned that those very actors we wanted to discuss would, within the short time that elapsed, intervene in history so quickly and so decisively.

After he gave his speech and left, like most people I too got rather fixated on Atalay's comparison. In a quick comparison I can immediately relay these observations: In the papers we listened to from the Arab side in Ankara 15 months ago, there were somewhat bigger subjects that touched life with some difficulty. There was a strong critique of corruption, dictatorship, and arbitrariness in law, but there was also a clear pessimism and hopelessness that had seeped into those critiques. In the great majority of the talks there were themes containing a clear envy and admiration for what the AK Parti had achieved in Turkey.

Yet at the 2nd congress we see that the focus has increasingly been on more concrete subjects. Corruption is again a subject of critique, but this time there are searches for concrete projects or analyses on how corruption can be overcome. The dominant question emerges as the question of what kind of concrete contributions social scientists will make to the concrete problems being experienced in the revolution countries going through the transition period. It is underlined that the intellectuals of the transition period have special responsibilities. Matters such as the security problem, the establishment of the rule of law, and how to break the resistance of the old governing elites to change are again among the important questions. Although the admiration for the AK Parti's success at the previous congress continues, dry admiration has now given way to more realistic assessments, not unquestioning ones, as to how well the AK Parti experience fits their own realities and how that experience can be drawn on.

In the 15 months that elapsed up to the second ATCOSS, extremely intense relations have already developed between Arab and Turkish social scientists. Three to four days is a period sufficient for getting acquainted and bonding, for building friendships. We can say with ease that we have already begun to reap the blessings of these relations.