Struggling for Recognition: The Alevi Movement in Germany and in Transnational Space
ISBN: 9780857450142
Platform/Publisher: JSTOR / Berghahn Books
Digital rights: Users: unlimited; Printing: chapter; Download: chapter



As a religious and cultural minority in Turkey, the Alevis have suffered a long history of persecution and discrimination. In the late 1980s they started a movement for the recognition of Alevi identity in both Germany and Turkey. Today, they constitute a significant segment of Germany's Turkish immigrant population. In a departure from the current debate on identity and diaspora, Sökefeld offers a rich account of the emergence and institutionalization of the Alevi movement in Germany, giving particular attention to its politics of recognition within Germany and in a transnational context. The book deftly combines empirical findings with innovative theoretical arguments and addresses current questions of migration, diaspora, transnationalism, and identity.


Martin Sökefeld is professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Munich, Germany. He previously taught at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. In 1997 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen and his Habilitation from the University of Hamburg in 2005. Sökefeld has also done fieldwork on ethnicity in the Northern Areas of Pakistan.

Martin Sökefeld is professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Munich, Germany. He previously taught at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. In 1997 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Tübingen and his Habilitation from the University of Hamburg in 2005. Sökefeld has also done fieldwork on ethnicity in the Northern Areas of Pakistan.

hidden image for function call