Comparative analysis of classic and new social movements in Iran

Subject Areas : Political philosophy of the Islamic Revolution

Vahid  Zolfaghari ¹ (Postdoctoral researcher)

Received: 2022-12-30 Accepted : 2023-01-29 Published : 2023-01-21

Keywords: Iran, Globalization, Civil Society, social movement, collective action,

Abstract :

Collective behaviors and social actions, inspired by historical developments such as two world wars, the rise of fascist-communist movements, the collapse of the colonial ecosystem and the acceleration of globalization processes, took place in the form of national and transnational social movements. Following these global transformations on the one hand, and the experience of two revolutions in one century, the eight-year war and globalization in Iran on the other hand, the nature of contemporary society changed. In other words, since the beginning of the 20th century, the gap between the state-nation and the nation-imperialism brought different layers of social movements, especially students, who wanted to establish a civil society and establish a democratic structure. In fact, social actions, by sitting on the seat of courage and civility, are cut off from the politicization and factionalism that dominates social relations and are trying to get rid of this political issue. According to this understanding, the main question of the current writing is how to analyze social movements, especially student movements in Iran, with the Meluchi-Torn theoretical model? Employing the logic of historical sociology and the descriptive-analytical method, the author emphasizes the hypothesis that the nature, identifiers, and different contexts of social movements in Iran distinguish it from the Molochi-Torn analysis model. The findings of the research show that the background and timing of social movements make social actions in Iran not necessarily in full compliance with the analytical model of Meluchi-Torn.