If two prospective projects are in the same social field (e.g. health, education, etc.), how do participants choose one project over the other?
Projects are selected for their practicability, legality and effectiveness. They are not exploited for a “politics of signification”, that is, in order to gain ascendancy over others or to move up in some existing hierarchy of constituency, class, politics, or credibility; that is, projects are not selected for prestige nor for their potential to be attention-grabbing.
There are many reasons why individuals may choose to participate in a particular project; motivational factors arise from the many and varied backgrounds of the participants, the characteristics of the different regions where participants live, work, and volunteer, and the formalization and institutionalization of the Gülen Movement in over one hundred countries. Thus, individuals perceive their identity and the Gülen Movement services to be in a high degree of accord within their life space and the world at large. Their own and the Gülen Movement’s orientations, interests and values are congruent and complementary. Moreover, as the Gülen Movement’s goals and worldview do not depart much from mainstream or pre-existing prospects at hand, participants readily incorporate their energies into the Gülen Movement’s collective action. Almost a thousand educational and cultural institutions world-wide are considered proof of this.
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