Armando Salvatore Livres

Exploring the dynamics of modern public spheres, this collection of essays delves into how they both reflect and obscure discourses of order and power in the Muslim world. Contributors analyze various time periods and locations, emphasizing the significance of these public realms in shaping political and societal power within Muslim-majority countries. The work builds on existing scholarship to offer a nuanced understanding of the interplay between public discourse and hegemony in contemporary societies.

This volume deals with historical and contemporary articulations of the relation of tension between the civilizing impetus of Muslim traditions, and modern forms, fields and techniques of power. These techniques are associated with the process of state-building, as well as with the related constraints of disciplining, normative cohesion, control of the territory and monitored social differentiation. The contributions conceptualize Muslim traditions as deriving their legitimacy, authority, as well as normative and organizing power from being embedded in the discourses and institutions of Islam, which constitute one major center within world history, by now also encompassing Muslim communities within Western societies.

The Sociology of Islam provides an accessible introduction to this emerging field of inquiry, teaching and debate. The study is located at the crucial intersection between a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities.