The Long Twentieth Century in Iran: Dynamics of Change, Continuity and Mobilizing Master Frames

Abstract

This article explores master frames of social movement mobilization over the course of the long twentieth century in Iran. It illustrates that while participants were diverse, democratization remained the dominant master frame of the grand social movements of the twentieth century. In this article, I present historical analyses of four social movements in Iran which demonstrate that although Iran’s integration into the capitalist world system fostered profound economic and social transformation, its political system remained comparatively unaffected. This explains why demands for political reforms served as key mobilizing frames for social movements. This continuity reveals a profound crisis of the Iranian political system, because although nationwide social movements have experienced success the state–society relationship remains fraught with contention.

Who is Entitled to Oppose Planning Decisions? Politics of Rightful Resistance in Tehran

“…In addition to the absence of institutional venues, mass surveillance of newspapers and social media has left people with no channel for sharing and airing their grievances and complaints (Rivetti 2017). Other ways of voicing objections to state or private-sector projects, such as NGOs and civic associations, have been significantly contained, co-opted, or dismantled (Fadaee 2018).…”

Rural Development in Iran: A Survey of Policies and Outcomes

“…Nevertheless, with respect to the ideologically oriented nature of post-revolutionary rural programs and macro developments, it can now be claimed that the political turmoil of the revolution did not isolate rural society from larger sociopolitical events. In addition, some of the most profound changes took place in Iranian society at large as the consequences of deformation of the social aggregate structure (Fadaeei, 2018). This, in turn, affected rural communities in later periods.…”

“…This was partly because of the culminating criticisms of the pre-revolutionary rural policies that had neither substantially increased the supply of food in the urban areas, nor raised the overall agricultural productivity in proportion to the rapidly growing population (Azkia, 2002; Haghayeghi, 1990; Schirazi, 1993). These policies along with other macro socioeconomic developments helped to reinforce the existing social strata and the widening socioeconomic gap between different social groups in general and the rural areas in particular and intensified the massive migration of the rural poor to the cities (Amid, 1990; Fadaee, 2018; Mohtadi, 1990). It has been argued that the pre-revolutionary Pahlavi regime had deliberately neglected the rural sector while trying to create a modern Iranian society in imitation of the Western industrial countries.…”

“…2.The criticisms rooted in the fact that the revolution was the consequence of long-term dissatisfaction in the society and brought with policy expectation for a fundamental change to socioeconomic system including rural one (for more details, see Fadaee, 2018). …”