Product DescriptionThis book offers a framework for understanding the interaction between the academic disciplines "observing" contemporary political Islam and the individuals and communities being "observed" practising it. Volpi investigates how different disciplinary approaches in the social sciences explainand understand their "Islamic" subject matter, revealing how political Islam is a phenomenon that each academic discipline analyses using its own dominant paradigms. He offers a multidisciplinary account of political Islam based on the insights provided by postorientalism, international studies,sociology of religion, democratisation studies, multiculturalism studies, security studies, and globalisation studies. His book outlines the areas of convergence and the synergies between these approaches and highlights the gaps and misunderstanding that still exist between parallel narratives onIslamism.Review"(A) must for anyone discussing and seeking to understand Islamic politics around the world."--Midwest Book Review"Political Islam Observed compares the various academic disciplinesthat observe political Islam to the communitiesand individuals actually being observed through the specialized lenses of social science."--Middle East Journal"Engaging and illuminating, this book should be essential reading for any scholar concerned with recognizing the complex ways in which their own epistemological commitments shape the questions they ask and the conclusions they reach."--Jillian Schwedler,Perspectives on Politics"An important contribution that provides a critical analysis of Islam and Muslim societies from an international studies perspective."--Tugrul Keskin,Review of Middle East StudiesAbout the AuthorFrédéric Volpi is Lecturer in International Relations at the University of St Andrews and the author ofIslam and Democracy.