Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
ŞIRNAK UNIVERSITY JOURNAL OF DIVINITY FACULTY, cilt.27, sa.2, ss.111-133, 2021 (ESCI)
The concept of integration is generally used with the terms such as solidarity, unity, collectivism, integration, collective consciousness, balance, adaptation as well as concordance, socializing, being in balance, uniting, harmony and acculturation. It is necessary to carefully examine all the factors that are effective in ensuring or failing to achieve integration and to research more effective functions in this regard. Achieving social integration is possible not only by the successful cooperation of the main groups but also of the subgroups. Economic, ethnic or different subgroup definitions, especially like religious, constitute the basic components of these factors. Our study aims to develop a scale which measures the effect of these and similar factors on social integration. Social integration can be considered at three basic levels of explanation. The first level focuses on the meaning and functions of social integration from a functionalist perspective. Here, the functional compatibility of the parts that make up the society, both with each other and with the system in general, is the main problem. Individuals show normative, functional, or compulsory social integration tendencies with the society they live in based on the thesis that integration is the only process. The second level is the explanations made through the "political economy" of social integration as a projection of critical theory. The increase in class differences on the basis of property, production and capital, the deepening of the gap between social strata, and the decrease in social mobility include risks in terms of integration in modern societies. According to this approach, integration is not a "forced destination" in societies. The increase in class gap on the axis of labour exploitation undermines trust in social justice, and when trust in social justice weakens, the culture of living together becomes theoretical; forms of social relations shift towards conflict. The sociological antidote to this situation is to prevent labour alienation; spread the capital to the base; decrease the gaps between different social classes, and increase the stratification of the middle-class. At the third level of explanation, analyses are made based on the individuals' specific features of social integration. Accordingly, social integration is the ability to understand the individual's meaningful behaviours as ongoing and articulated realities and to meet on common ground. This study tries to develop a social integration scale. Social integration is the degree to which we have a sense of "we" in diversity. Social integration is not a static, unchanging, and sharp equilibrium process. In modern societies that are inevitably diverse, it is a social necessity that requires effort. In societies today where individuation, specialization, differentiation, and division of labour have increased and regional and cultural differences are intertwined, there is a greater focus on social integration. In a world where not only thoughts but also consciences are liberated, the need for integration is one of the major areas of discussion in sociology. Although there are theoretical studies in the field of social integration in Turkey, this study aims to contribute to the literature by developing a scale. In this sense, the main purpose of the study is to develop a social integration measurement tool. A questionnaire as a quantitative research method and document analysis as a qualitative research method were used to analyse the data.