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    Sociology and the Question of Indigenization


    Symposium Background

    The Western cognitive model forms the basis of human and social knowledge in its current structure. The human and social sciences mostly emanate from the Western cognitive model and discus Western human issues according to the contexts of Western societies. This led to a gap between the theoretical structure of social sciences and the Arab reality, which is logical because the producer's mind differs from the recipient's mind and reality. Sociology is not an exception to this phenomenon; it is also a direct extension of the Western cognitive model foundation and context. For this reason, sociology experts in the Arab world have long advocated the acclimation of sociology by reshaping its theoretical structure to be qualified to ask and answer Arab reality questions, while ensuring the permanence and continuity of the interaction and methodological coherence among the cognitive achievements of all human societies. The purpose of "indigenization" is not a dogmatic ideological bias based on a claim of self-sufficiency, but to reconsider the different societal and cultural contexts to reuse human knowledge in our societies.

    Great efforts have been made by Arab scholars to establish Arab sociology. These efforts focused on two main tracks: one that chose Arabism as the central thrust of the process of acclimation and sought to establish "Arab sociology" while the other track made Islam a central start in the acclimation of sociology; they sought to establish "Islamic sociology". A third track has sought to settle social knowledge without considering the need to add social status, whether Arab or Islamic. Since the values of "diversity" and "objectivity" are of the values governing the work of Ibn Khaldon Center, it is worth to highlight all these tracks with a focus on the two main experiments objectively without ideological bias to any of them. This is done by examining their outputs and mechanisms and methodological obstacles faced every path that might challenge the legitimacy of the originality of the same idea.

    As the indigenization process needs institutional efforts that respect the scientific methodology in dealing with knowledge production, the evaluation efforts, thus, begin by elites with diverse trends and fields who are strengthened by methodology and scientific rigor. Therefore, Ibn Khaldon Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at Qatar University seeks, through this symposium, to examine the availability of methodological and cognitive potentiality for indigenization of sociology as well as the requirements for this potentiality.

    Themes

    This symposium comes within the framework of the renovation and indigenization of the humanities and social sciences project adopted by Ibn Khaldon Centre for Humanities and Social Sciences at Qatar University. The symposium will address the following four themes:

    1. Indigenization of Sociology: Foundations, Conditions and Requirements
      This theme discusses epistemological problems related to cognitive requirements and scientific foundations as well as methodological, institutional and other conditions that could serve in the indigenization of sociology process. This is in addition to obstacles and challenges that deter indigenization of sociology process as well as transforming large quantities of the empirical studies into governing theoretical structures that would establish sociology in Arab/Islamic context.
    2. Experiences and Models in the Indigenization of Sociology
      Given the importance of highlighting the experiences of the indigenization of sociology, this theme deals with some models of the indigenization of sociology in various contexts through researching in the issues encountered these experiences and providing critical evaluative readings.
    3. Islamic Sociology and the Question of Indigenization
      This is an important experience of Islamic sociology, considering the various scientific efforts that have tried to establish this field, looking for its legitimacy in understanding, interpretation and prediction to the reality of the Islamic and Arab society. This theme addresses questions about the legitimacy of this field and foundations that were/ can be the base of it as well as the value of its accumulations in the general theory of sociology.
    4. Gulf Sociology: Question of Potentiality
      This theme examines the potentiality of sociology for the gulf region, and the rationales for its existence in two levels: cognitive level through its subject, methodology, scientific value and forms of its overlapping with sociology in general and with the sociology in the Arab world in particular; and procedurally through the solutions that can be offered by it to the social dilemmas in the gulf region.
    Saturday 27 Safar 1441 A.H. corresponding to 26 October 2019 A.D.
    08:30-09:30Registration of Attendance
    09:30-10:30
    • Opening statement: Director of Ibn Khaldon Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, Dr. Nayef bin Nahar.
    • Speech of Dean of College of Arts and Science at Qatar University, Dr. Ibrahim AlKaabi.
    • Keynote Speech: Contemporary Significance of Ibn Khaldon: Methodology and Theory, Prof. Dr. Syed Farid Alatas
    10:30-11:45First session: Indigenization of Sociology: Foundations, Conditions and Requirements

    Moderator

    Prof. Dr. Mouldi Lahmar

    Panelists
    Prof. Dr. Faouzi BoukhrissConditions of the Emergence of Sociology in the Arab Context and the Question of Adaptation
    Dr. Asma MalkawiMethodological Basis for Theorization in Arabic Countries: Reconciling the Arab Reality and Western Models.
    Prof. Dr. Seyed Javad MiriRevisiting Indigenization of Social Sciences
    11:45-12:00Break
    12:00-13:30Second session: Experiences and Models in the Indigenization of Sociology

    Moderator

    Prof. Dr. Lahay AbdulHussein

    Panelists
    Prof. Dr. Recep ŞentürkIntellectual Dependency: Late Ottoman Intellectuals between Fiqh and Social Science
    Dr. Rachid BenbihThe Indigenization of Social Sciences in Africa: Research Efforts of Fatima Mernissi and John Mark Ela
    Prof. Dr. Narayana JayaramTowards Indigenisation of an Uncertain Transplant: Hundred Years of Sociology in India
    Prof. Dr. Seyed Ali MousaviThe Paths of Indigenization of Sociology in the Iranian Experience
    13:30-15:00Third session: Islamic Sociology and the Question of Indigenization

    Moderator

    Dr. Ali A.Hadi Al Shawi

    Panelists
    Dr. Aziz ElbittiouiThe Rationale and Requirements of Islamic Sociology
    Prof. Dr. Hamid ParsaniaApproach to the Study of Contemporary Social Sciences in the Islamic World
    Dr. Mohammed BelbachirThe Legitimacy of Indigenization of an Arab Islamic Social Sciences: Methodological Bases and Scientific Requirements
    Dr. Abdelhalim MahourbachaHuman and Omra'an: Knowledge Requirements and the Methodological Foundations for the Establishment of the Science of Omra’an
    15:00-16:00Lunch Break
    16:00-17:00Open Discussion Session: Gulf Sociology: Question of Potentiality

    Panelists

    • Dr. Nayef Bin Nahar
    • Mr. Mubarak Al Hamdani
    17:00Closing Statement

     

    Prof. Dr. Syed Farid Alatas

    Professor of Sociology at the National University of Singapore. HE is also appointed to the Department of Malay Studies at NUS and headed that department from 2007 till 2013. He lectured at the University of Malaya in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies prior to joining NUS. In the early 1990s, he was a Research Associate at the Women and Human Resource Studies Unit, Science University of Malaysia. Prof. Alatas has authored numerous books and articles, including Ibn Khaldun (Oxford University Press, 2013); Applying Ibn Khaldun: The Recovery of a Lost Tradition in Sociology (Routledge, 2014), and (with Vineeta Sinha) Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon (Palgrave, 2017) and "The State of Feminist Theory in Malaysia" in Maznah Mohamad and Wong Soak Koon, eds., Feminism: Malaysian Reflections and Experience (special issue of Kajian Malaysia: Journal of Malaysian Studies), 12, 1-2 (1994): 25-46. His areas of interest are the sociology of Islam, social theory, religion and reform, intra- and inter-religious dialogue, and the study of Orientalism.

    Prof. Dr. Mohammed Amezzian

    He has Ph.D. in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Department of Islamic Studies, at the University of Mohammed 1st in Morocco in 2000. He also has a Master’s degree in the Faculty of Dar Al Uloom, Department of Islamic Philosophy at Cairo University in 1988. He worked as a professor at the University of Mohammed Premier in Morocco since 1988. He worked at Zayed University in the United Arab of Emirates from 2005 to 2010. Since 2011, he has worked at Qatar University where he was a professor in the Department of Da'wa and Islamic Culture. He previously served as the head of the Department of Da'wa and Islamic Culture, College of Sharia and Islamic Studies, at Qatar University. He studied curriculums relevant to religions, world religious thought, study of logics and Islamic political thought. His scientific research interests are focused on Islamic heritage, contemporary Islamic political thought, and contemporary problems of the modern state in Arab societies. This is in addition to his interest in the issues of methodology in social sciences.

     

    Dr. Munira Al-Rumaihi

    A Qatari academic and writer, she had her Bachelor from Qatar University, and her Master and PhD from Ain Shams University, Egypt. She works as professor at Department of Sociology, Collage of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University. She participated in numerous workshops related to utilizing technology in Education. She participated also in local and regional seminars and conferences. She published several papers regarding Islamic Ideology, the socialization of children, and the obstacles that face Qatari women in the media, including: Children Mental Health (coauthored book within the comprehensive plan project for child and maternity care in Qatar under the Ministry of Education and Culture, 1997), the Urban development of the city in Gulf Societies: Doha City as model, and the society between two civilizations: comparative analyzation of the relationship between Man, State, and Civil Society.

    Prof. Dr. Eltigani Abdelgadir

    He received his PhD in political science from London University in 1989. He worked as a professor in Sudan, Malaysia, United States of America, United Arab Emirates, and Qatar where he worked as a professor of Political Thought and Islamic studies. At the time being, he is the head of social sciences and humanities department at Ibn Khaldon Center for Humanities and Social Sciences. He is also the editor in chief of Tajseer, a peer-reviewed academic journal issued by the same center. Eltigani participated in many Arab and international scientific conferences and published several scientific articles and books, the most recent of which is “The Crisis of Social Sciences” (Coauthored book under publication).

    Moderator of the 1st Session

    Prof. Dr. Mouldi Lahmar

    Professor in Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Doha Institute for Graduate Studies. He studied Sociology and Anthropology and received his PhD in Sociology (the field of Sociology of Rural Societies) from EHESS, Paris. He moved after to teach at Tunis University, Department of Sociology, where he received another PhD in the field of Political Sociology. He is a member of the executive board of the Tunisian Society for Political Studies, and a member of the editorial board of Tunisian periodicals, and a member of Maghrebian Studies laboratory.

    He recently published “Trade Union Activities and Transitional Challenges in the context of the “Arab Spring”: Example of Tunisian General Labour Union” (Siyassat Arabia Journal, Issue No. 30, 2018). He translated “Emic and Etic in Re-theorizing «Tribe» A Step toward an Arab Anthropological Discourse” (Omran Academic Journal, Issue No. 19, 2017). He coauthored “The Tunisian Revolution: The Local Trigger through the Prism of the Social Sciences” (2014), and authored “The Social Roots of the Modern State in Libya: the Individual, the Group, and the Leadership building of the Political Phenomena” (2009). He authored “From Sheep to Olive, an Attempt to the Social Transformation of Maghreb rurales” (1994).

    Moderator of the 2nd Session

    Prof. Dr. Lahay AbdulHussein

    She is a Professor of Sociology at University of Baghdad. She worked as an Associate Professor, Department of Sociology at University of Garyounis University, Libya. She worked also as a Visiting Professor at Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA, USA (2007). She is a member of the Higher Education Council and a member of the Council of Experts at the Faculty of Arts at Baghdad University. She received a PhD in Sociology, Utah University, USA. Her Dissertation was about “Gender Inequality in Iraq” (1991).

    Lahay participated in numerous national and international forums and conferences. She received several awards including: the Fulbright Award to Dickinson College in Pennsylvania (2007), Award of Ministry of Higher Education in Social Research (2015), and the Honor Trophy from Faculty of Arts, Baghdad University for her retirement (2018). She published research in Arab and International Journals (Social Affairs, Idafat, Omran…), in addition to several translations from English into Arabic, most recent of which is the dissertation of Dr. Ali Al-wardi about Ibn Khaldon’s Theory entitled: “On Sociology of Knowledge” (2018).

    Moderator of the 3rd Session

    Dr. Ali A.Hadi Al Shawi

    He is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at Qatar University and President of the faculty executive member’s council at the same university. He received a Bachelor of Sociology from Qatar University in 1990 and pursue his studies in United States of America. He received a Master of Political Sociology from the University of West Michigan in 1994 and a PhD in Political Sociology from the University of Mississippi 2002.

    Dr. Ali is concerned with social theories and issues of globalization and political sociology such as political participation, political socialization, tribal loyalty, citizenship, and identity. He has published several researches including a study on Tribal Loyalty in the Arab Gulf: a Case Study of the State of Qatar.

    Moderator of Discussion Session

    Dr. Nayef Bin Nahar

    The Director of Ibn Khaldon Center for Humanities and Social Sciences, and Professor at Qatar University. He has received a Master and PhD degrees in Fiqh and its principles for a Dissertation on "Islamic Banking in Qatar". He received a second doctorate in political sciences about "The Static and the Dynamic in the Democratic System". Dr. Nayef published seven scientific books, as well as extensive scientific researches in the fields of Sharia, Politics, International Relations, Sociology, Philosophy, Logic and Islamic Economy. He participated in about 25 international conferences.

    Prof. Dr. Faouzi Boukhriss

    • He is the Head of Sociology, Philosophy and Psychology Department, and the founder of the Master of “Sociology of Education” and a founding member of the "Philosophy and Society" laboratory at Ibn Tofail University, Morocco. He is a member of the editorial board of several social science journals. He published and participated in numerous research articles and books, the most recent of which was "Women in Social Sciences Discourse: From Sex Variables to Gender Inquiries" (2016) and “on the Sociology of political Parties: Political Parties in Morocco between Local Development and Political development" (2019).

    • Research Abstract

    Dr. Asma Malkawi

    • Dr. Malkawi holds a Bachelor and a Master degree in sociology, as well as a PhD in the philosophy of communication from the University of Jordan. She has been working at the Department of Social Sciences in Qatar University since early 2014. She has also been involved in the field of scientific research for more than ten years at several research centers. Dr. Malkawi has a research works published in some of the most prominent Arab and international institutions and research centers. She has a book called "Ethics of Communication in the Digital Age" published by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in 2017 and "Digital Protest Movements and Changes in the Public Sphere" published in Lubab Journal in 2018.

    • Research Abstract

    Prof. Dr. Seyed Javad Miri

    • Irano-Swedish social theorist, was born into a Turkish-Russian family in northwestern Iran in the city of Tabriz and moved to Sweden in his teens. He is a professor in human sciences and philosophy at the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies. Miri received his bachelor and master degrees at Goteborg University in Sweden and then moved in 1998 to England where he got his doctoral degree in collaboration with Gregor McLennan at Bristol University in the department of sociology. There he worked on the question of social theory based on an intercivilizational dialogue by comparing the sacred and secular intellectual traditions in the works of Ali Shariati and Allama Iqbal (from the primordial intellectual tradition) and Giddens and Goffman (from the modernist intellectual tradition). He has been teaching and living since 2004 in China, Russia and currently working in Tehran. He has published 50 books and over 90 articles both on various issues related to social theory, philosophy and religion from a transcendental point of departure. His latest work on Frantz Fanon and Emancipatory Social Theory was published by Brill in 2019.

    • Research Abstract

    Prof. Dr. Recep Şentürk

    • The President of Ibn Haldun University (IHU) in Istanbul, Turkey. Professor Şentürk holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Department of Sociology, and specializes in civilization studies, sociology and Islamic studies with a focus on social networks, human rights, and modernization in the Muslim world. Among his books are in English, Narrative Social Structure: Hadith Transmission Network 610-1505 , and in Turkish; Open Civilization: Towards a Multi- Civilizational Society and World; Ibn Khaldun: Contemporary Readings; Malcolm X: Struggle for Human Rights, Social Memory: Hadith Transmission Network 610-1505. Dr. Şentürk’s work has been translated to Arabic, Japanese and Spanish.

    • Research Abstract

    Dr. Rachid Benbih

    • Holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, Fez, Morocco. He has an M.A. in migration and sustainable development at the University of Ibn Zohr University in Agadir, and a diploma in Development Management and Social Work from the National School of Management in Rabat, Morocco.

      He published several articles and books and scientific translations in the field of migration, development and gender studies. His book entitled "Women's Migrations to Morocco: A Study in the Dynamics of Social Activity and Organized Action, a Case of Migrant Women from Senegal and the Democratic Republic of the Congo" will be published soon by Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.

    • Research Abstract

    Prof. Dr. Narayana Jayaram

    • He completed his academic studies in India where he received his doctorate in Sociology from the University of Bangalore (India) in 1976. He has taught at a number of universities inside and outside India. He served as Director of the Institute for Social and Economic Change in India until 2008.He is currently a Visiting Professor at the National Law School of the University of India and a Visiting Researcher at Demid University in Bangalore. He is also a member of the Third World Studies Society and Editor-in-Chief and editor of several scientific journals. Narayana's interest lies in the topics of sociology of education, politics, urbanization and the diaspora in addition to the theory and research methods. He has published about one hundred and fifty research articles and three hundred book reviews, with books and contributions in 20 scientific books, including:

      • The Indian Diaspora; Keywords: Identity (with Aziz Al-Azmeh, Wang Bin, David A. Hollinger, Mahmood Mamdani, and Emmanuel Renault).
      • Social Conflict (co-edited with Satish Saberwal; two editions).
      • Understanding Social Dynamics in South Asia (co-edited with Partha Nath Mukherji and Bhola Nath Ghosh).
    • Research Abstract

    Prof. Dr. Seyed Ali Mousavi

    • Director of the Institute of Monotheistic Civilization Studies in Qom, Iran, and Professor of Philosophy and Sharia in the scientific estate in Qom, and professor of political studies of the Islamic Republic at Sharif Industrial University in Tehran. He studied physics at the University of Science and Industry in Tehran. He served as a political and economic researcher in the period 2005-2008 at the Technology Research Centre, and as a professor of political behaviour curriculum for the State and the Islamic Revolution leaderships in Iran at Sharif Industrial University and the University of Science and Industry in Tehran. He has also worked at some of the Centre for Strategic Studies' centres. His doctoral dissertation dealt with the production of a theory in the nature of culture and social structure based on the philosophical vision of Mulla Sadra al-Shirazi. In 2009, he served as the director of a research group for applied studies between lifestyle and social structure. In 2011, he focused on studying the philosophical methodology of Islamic social sciences.

    • Research Abstract

    Dr. Aziz Elbittioui

    • Professor of higher education at the University of Ibn Zahr in Agadir, Morocco. He received a doctorate in the "Traditions of Omra‘an in the Prophet's Sira‘a" (2012). He is the head of the centre for Studies and Research in thought and society, and a member of the Laboratory of Islamic Studies and Ijtihad Sciences of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ibn Zohr. He is a scientific reviewer of the Moroccan Journal "Tahawulat Mo'asera (Contemporary Transitions)." He published "Milestones of Critical Lesson of Arab Ethical Mind by Mohammed Abed Al-Jabri" (2017). The International Institute of Islamic Thought also published his book "Traditions of Omra‘an in the Prophet's Sira‘a" (2018) in addition to other contributions to books and scientific journals and participations in national and international conferences and seminars.

    • Research Abstract

    Prof. Dr. Hamid Parsania

    • Born in 1958, he started his education at Ḥawzah ʿIlmīyah of Qum since 1977. He studied sociology in 1980. He is currently a philosophy and Mysticism professor in Ḥawzah ʿIlmīyah, and a member of the scientific board of Sociology department in the faculty of Social Sciences at Tehran University, and the president of the faculty of Social Sciences of the Baqir Al-Ulum University. He is considered to be the founding father of the department of philosophy of social sciences in Iran (in Baqir AL-Ulum and Tehran Universities). He authored an important philosophical and mystical study entitled: "Al-Rahiq Al-Makhtum" (The Sealed Nectar); a multi-volume series written as a commentary on Sadr al-Din Shirazi's book titled: "Al-Hikmat Al-Muta'aliyah"; the Transcendent Theosophy by, of which 20 volumes have been issued until today. He also wrote a commentary on Ibn 'Arabi's book "Fusus al-Hikam" (Seals of Wisdom) Under the title "Sharh Fusus al-Hikam" (A Commentary of the Seals of Wisdom) in 15 volumes, the last two volumes provide a summary of the lectures of his teacher Ayatullah Jawadi Amuli.

      He has also authored several published books in the field of social sciences, among them: "Al-Awalim Al-Ijtima'eyya" (Sociological Worlds), "Hadith Al-Qidam" (Account of Eternity); a study of Iran's Islamic revolution, "Al-Amwaj Al-Sab' L' Al-Islahat (the relationship between theory and practice in contemporary Iran)" (Seven Approaches to Reform), "Al-Manhaj Al-Naqdi L' Al-Hikma Al-Sadra'iya" (A critical approach to Sadra'i wisdom), "Al-Ramz W Al-Ostorah" (Symbol and Myth), "Al-Wugud w Al-Hubut" (Existence and the Fall), "Al-Turath, Al-Ideologiya, Al-Ilm" (Tradition, Ideology and Science), "Al-Ilm W Al Falsafa" (Science and Philosophy), "Ilm Ijtma'a Al-Ma'arifa W Al-Ilm" (The Philosophy of Social Sciences and the Sociology of Knowledge).

    • Research Abstract

    Dr. Mohammed Belbachir

    • Professor of Anthropology of Religion and Religious Studies at the college of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Abou Bekr Belkaid Tlemcen, Algeria. He obtained the Certificate of in-depth studies in Islamic advocacy curricula and special studies in Arabic language Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. He received a Doctorate Degree from the faculty of Islamic Civilization, Oran University, Algeria. He participated in several national and international conferences. His published works include: "Purposes of Sharia Research framework in social sciences - Purposes of Sharia for Imam Qurtubi" and "Is there a need for Arab-Islamic social sciences?".

    • Research Abstract

    Dr. Abdelhalim Mahourbacha

    • He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Mohammed Lamin Dabaghin, Setif 2, Algeria. He is an Assistant Editor of the Journal of Social Sciences (Setif 2), President of a national research group, accredited from the Ministry of Higher Education in Algeria, Member of Doctorate formation team, specializes in Sociology of Education. His scientific works include: a book titled "Sociology in the Arab World, from Criticism to Establishment, Towards a Science of Islamic Omran (Sociology)", 2018 and his book entitled: "Philosophy of history, an introduction to the interpretive models of human history", (2016). He has contributed to many international conferences with various papers and published several articles in peer-reviewed journals on orientalism, contemporary Arab thought and indigenization studies of sciences.

    • Research Abstract

    Mr. Mubarak Al Hamdani

    • Researcher in Sociology from the Sultanate of Oman. He graduated in the field of sociology from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Sultan Qaboos University. He is currently a Social Researcher at the General Secretariat of the Shura Council of the Sultanate of Oman. He is a member of the International Society of Sociology and a member of the committee of social theory in the society, in addition to the membership of a number of national committees, including Parliamentary technical committees, youth sector committees, and other committees in social studies and developing social policies.

      He is interested in the field of political sociology and digital sociology, and has other activity in the field of parliamentary studies, in addition to the field of youth studies. His current research interests are in the context of formulating perspectives for the indigenization of sociology at the Gulf and Omani society, as well as the anthropological and cultural structures of Gulf societies and their impact on democratic practice in Gulf societies. He published scientific papers and contributed to chapters in books, including "Values of Social Coexistence in Omani society as reflected in Virtual Spaces" and "Craft of Sociology: Issues in Contemporary Commitment." He also participated in many international, regional and local conferences in the fields of sociology, political science, parliamentary studies and youth forums.

    • Research Abstract

    Ibn Khaldon Center for Humanities and Social Sciences
    Qatar University

    P.O. Box: 2713 (Doha – Qatar)
    Email: ibnkhaldon@qu.edu.qa
    Phone: 00974-44037191