Are there likely to be any future conflicts over power, resource distribution or succession in Hizmet?
Since people in the Gülen Movement generally avoid seeking positions of power, and participants consciously avoid giving any power to people who seek it, these kinds of conflicts are unlikely to arise. If anyone or any group were to try to raise such conflict, they would be unlikely to win any support in the Gülen Movement or have much impact as they would be clearly contradicting the norms within the Gülen Movement.
Speculation by outside researchers about potential conflicts over power, resource distribution or succession fails to take account of the activists’ own understanding of the opportunities available to them. What such researchers present as the reality has not been mutually and socially constructed and shared between the collective actor and the researcher so it has no objective reality.
Rather than speculation about future allocation of resources and power, the invisible resources behind the efficacy of the Gülen Movement could be usefully studied. These include consensus, lack of competition for power and leadership, various forms of co-operation and exchange, reciprocal interaction, sacrifice, devotion, altruism, and working for and expecting only the pleasure of God. These are the variables by which the Gülen Movement achieves its objectives rather than individual or group leadership.
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