Social Movements In Iran

Stephen C. Poulson investigates cycles of social protest in Iran from 1890 to the present era. This work covers the following social movements: the 1890-92 Tobacco Movement; the 1906-09 Constitutional Revolution; two post-World War II movements, the Tudeh (Masses) and the National Front; the 1963 Qom Protest; and the 1978-79 Iranian Revolution. Poulson shows how various Iranian political actors have framed their dissent, drawing on both regional and Western-influenced modes of protest to achieve their ends.

Based on original fieldwork on environmentalism in Iran, this study integrates sociological and historical analyses of social movements and civil society in contemporary Iran. By applying Western sociology to Iranian history and society this book contributes to a better understanding of social movements in a non- European context.

This volume offers a much needed look into the historical, social, and political developments leading up to the Iranian revolution. Bringing together a group of scholars, historians, and social scientists, most of them Iranian in origin, the book documents an extraordinary revolutionary heritage that predates this century.

This book analyses the reform movement in Iran and the Egyptian opposition movement since the early 1990s in their historical contexts. It argues that the contemporary movements seen on the streets of the regions today represent the culmination of over twenty years of mobilisation by social movements.

Despite the growing significance of social movements worldwide, scholarship on the subject remains largely Western in nature, with studies written primarily by Western scholars and based on the experiences of Western cultures and societies. This book makes an important contribution to the study of social movements in non-Western societies by examining their development in Iran. With a particular focus on the recent environmental movement, the author sheds new light on the implications and significance of these movements. Drawing on in-depth original research, the case study of the environmental movement is integrated into a historical and comparative analysis. Implementing the new social movement theory of Touraine and Melucci in the Iranian context, the author shows that although the reform movement of Iran is unique, in some aspects it is a continuation of the past social movements. She places emphasis on the role of women in recent Iranian social movements, exploring the significance of social movements in civil society and in instigating social change. Using the case of Iran to offer a critical framework for studying social change and transformation of non-European countries, this book fills an important gap in the existing literature on the topic. As such, it will be of great interest to scholars and students of sociology, political science and Middle Eastern studies.

Political Expressionism: Roots of Social Movements in Iran, the Middle East, and the World describes how politics is much more abstract now and similar to how expressionism affected the art world. This work applies a theoretical and historical overview to examine changes in how social movements operate over the last century with a comparative overview of events in Iran, the Middle East and the world. Increased usage of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) and their impact on Traditional Communication Methods (TCMs) forever altered the dynamics of contention. This books’ motivating questions are: What is the modern dream for social change? "What is the future of Social Movements in Iran, the Middle East and the World? ", "What are the roles of Social Movements as a tool which can help create frameworks for democracy?" and “How did Internet Communications Technologies (ICTs) impact the conceptualization of space in states and societies?” Social movements analyzed in this work include, 18 Tir (the Iran Students protest of July 1999), the Green Movement of Iran (2009-2010),the economic uprings and the Women, Life, Freedom Movement in Iran of 2022, the Arab Spring (2010-2012), Taksim Square (Gezi Park) Movement in Turkey (2013) , and the Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong that started in 2014. This book aims to bridge knowledge gaps between the theory and practice of social movements for academics and human rights activists alike.

The story of a grassroots political movement that flourished throughout the 1970s and 1980s.