Turkish Sociology's Footprint in the History of Sociology

A simple glance at the classical or contemporary sociological theory books is enough to recognize the general tendency of limiting the history of sociology to the West in general without even mentioning the existence of other sociological traditions. The said situation has also a strong relation with the tendency of considering Western history as the main and only source of sociology.

The purpose of this paper is to show that history of sociology cannot be limited to Western traditions only. In that term emergence of sociology in Turkey and its establishment as an academic discipline at higher education institutions is a good example.

As the need for knowledge and practice of sociology in Turkey was different from the conditions the West was facing, development of sociology had its own unique way in Turkey. Sociology as an academic discipline was first taught in Daru’l-funun (House of Sciences) which was a higher education institution in the Ottoman Empire period. After the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and with the emergence of the new Turkish Republic, new reforms took place in higher education. In 1933 Daru’lfunun was reorganized and named Istanbul University. Since then up until now lots of sociology departments have been established at various Turkish universities.

One of the assertions of this paper is that while sociology is considered as a mere Western heritage, the history of sociology’s emergence and involvement in higher education in Turkey also show that particular social and historical contexts of Turkey have created different needs for and relations with it as a science resulting in different approaches and traditions which are also scientific and historical contributions and which should not be overlooked.