Why do people join and contribute to the service networks in the Gulen Movement? How do they become integrated?

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How do participants become integrated into the service projects and networks in the Gülen Movement?

As there is not a single dimension to human behavior, all problems are first brought for solution to networks of people, into the communicative process.

At the same time individuals become informed within the collectivity. Then they voluntarily integrate into relational networks of educational, social, and altruistic services. The Gülen Movement does not give identity to people, but provides resources for them to construct their own identity. It makes them responsible for both that identity and their action.

What makes people decide to join and contribute to service networks the Gülen Movement?

Individuals perform the greatest role in the process of becoming involved in the Gülen Movement.

Prior interpersonal contact is the single richest source of movement volunteers. Relationships through social life facilitate involvement and make it easy and comfortable for individuals to join and contribute to networks of services.

Within these networks, individuals interact and engage in negotiations as they develop the frameworks of ideas and motivation that are necessary for action. People by their free will accept roles that are in accord with their individual differences and personality traits. Individuals come into these service groups with a conscious decision to change and to direct their own existence.

In these social contexts, people can discuss appropriate action, and activate material resources, cultural capital and labor. The social and cognitive processes in such contexts help develop a rationale that legitimates a project’s formation and any follow-up projects. In addition to the rationale, people also develop a belief that the project or institution and its services are truly necessary and worth all contributions that they make.

How does moving from one service network to another affect participants in the Gülen Movement?

Plurality of goals and resources allow individuals to change networks with only minor consequences for the improvement and effectiveness of either their contribution or the network.

In addition, as the range of possible service-networks of choice is expanding with the increase in the range of roles and activities in the Movement, leaving one group for another becomes less dramatic an event for the individual.

Individuals do not join the service-networks on an individual basis alone, nor act or work in them out of self-interest. They do so through relational channels, such as friends, neighbors and professional associations. Individuals have the opportunity in service-networks to come to know one another as human beings. This informal fellowship develops a common sympathy which contributes to intimacy and social cohesion or solidarity. The Movement therefore does not need any formal ceemonial behavior, ritual, symbols, slogans, costumes or badges to foster identity or unity. Newcomers keep their relations with other people who are outside the Movement. They are not encouraged to drop or neglect anybody.

Participation in the Movement is based on information-sharing, exchange and interaction. It is based on taking an active role in the collective action. It takes the form of friendship-based circles. It is contextualized: people in it have simultaneous and multiple interests and friendships, and professionalized and altruistic commitments. Losses that may arise for any reason are therefore not borne by the individual in loneliness.