Middle East Critique最新文献

{"title":"Discourse Analysis of Social Justice Policies in Post-Revolutionary Iran","authors":"Reza Safari Shali","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2266867","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2266867","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The article aims to analyze the discursive transformations of social justice to realize social welfare during five successive administrations in the Islamic Republic of Iran from 1981 to 2021. It analyzes institutional texts and official speeches by the presidents of each administration based on the discourse analysis method of Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. The findings demonstrate that each government differently articulated the signifier of justice in its social policies. However, the central signification was tied to ‘poverty eradication’ in all five administrations. However, social justice was not considered a comprehensive discourse nor an inclusive strategic process, but rather was defined discursively by each government as a government-oriented project in a short-term perspective, mainly by reducing social justice to economic growth and redistribution of resources. Finally, according to the comprehensive discourse of the Islamic Revolution, I suggest the need to redefine social justice as the aim of realizing social welfare in Iranian society with regard to the comprehensive, multi-dimensional definition of justice which include: (1) equal access to resources and opportunities by providing backgrounds, range and scope for such opportunities; (2) considering the principle of entitlement and necessities; and (3) attention to redistributive justice and expansion of the government’s sup portive umbrella by focusing on the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups (social, physical and mental).Key Words: Discourse analysisIranSocial JusticeSocial SecurityWelfare AcknowledgmentsThe author would like to thank all colleagues who helped me in various way while I was writing this article, especially Prof. Mostafa Azkia and Pezhman Barkhordari, a PhD student of sociology at Kharazmi University in Tehran.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Gholam Abbas Tavasoli (Citation2003) In Search of Social Politics in Islam, Social Welfare Magazine, 10 (3), p. 81.2 Charities.3 It is a form of almsgiving often collected by the Muslims. It is considered a religious obligation for those who meet the necessary criteria of wealth to help the needy.4 Literally ‘one fifth’. In Islam it refers to the required religious obligation of any Muslim to pay 20 percent of their acquired wealth from certain sources toward specified causes.5 It is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage by mistake.6 Jafar HezarJarribi & Reza Safari Shali (Citation2013) Discourse on Justice in the Bills of the Post-Islamic Development Program, Emphasizing Poverty Reduction and Deprivation, Journal of Social Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University. 20(61), p.1.7 Friedrich A. Hayek (1978) The Constitution of Liberty (The University of Chicago Press).8 Reza Safari Shali (Citation2013) Review of the Discourse of Social Justice in P","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"57 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134991189","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Social Construction of Population Policies and Problems in Iran Since 1963","authors":"Abouali Vedadhir, Seyedhadi Marjaei","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2268860","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2268860","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Population has been and continues to be a significant matter of concern and contention in Iran. A range of different claims-makers, with varying dramas, ideologies, resources, rhetorical strategies and schemas have made claims that name and frame the population problem in particular ways to influence policy processes, and the experiences, meanings, and practices of people in everyday life. As a result, since 1967, mainly in post-revolutionary Iran, there has been the rise and fall of contesting narratives of the population as a social problem. Drawing on theoretical insights from social constructionism, we track these debates. In particular, we are interested in how claims-makers use rhetorical strategies and mobilize resources to convince others and to influence policy processes through social problem games and works. In other words, we examine the claims-making activities around the population as a social problem over the last half-century in Iran, showing how an understanding of these activities can enrich our understanding of definitional processes. We also discuss how certain discourses, policies and social constructions of population and family planning have become dominant and have influenced cultural meanings, popular images and the daily life experiences of people, particularly women and their prospects of reproduction and motherhood, for the most part, in the shadow of interpretations of Islamic Sharia law enforced since the 1979 Revolution. Building on the constructionist analysis and interoperation of contesting anti-natalist and pronatalist claims and policies over the last half-century in Iran, this article highlights how images of population problems are constructed socio-culturally with actual impact on individuals’ everyday lives in society, and how people find ways to respond, resist and counter the dominant discourses and policies about family planning, population and reproduction and family. Hence, the contesting claims, definitions and discourses around population have not been merely abstract points of debate, but they have penetrated the emotions, memories, relationships, prospects and practices of people in Iran. The results reveal that there are several existing and emerging dialectics, paradoxes, and uncertainties on population policies and problems at multiple levels, with each of these definitions having key insights and implications for policy-related scientific research (science), the policy process and its outcomes, reproductive prospects and the practices of people (public).Key Words: Claims-making activitiesIranpopulation policiesreproductionsocial constructionism AcknowledgmentsWe are warmly grateful to Professor Dorothy Pawluch (McMaster University) for her enduring contributions to social constructionism and for her valuable ideas on the very first draft of this manuscript. We also would like to thank Professor Mahmoud Ghazi Tabatabaei (University of Tehran) and Dr. S. M. Hani Sadati (The Centre for Co","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":" 4","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135242476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Editor’s Note","authors":"Eric Hooglund","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2268861","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2268861","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"7 3","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135460930","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Sociology of Rival Music Genres and Music Consumption in Post-1979 Revolution Iranian Society","authors":"Masoud Kowsari","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2266869","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2266869","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractThis article examines the genesis of and competition among rival music genres in post-revolutionary Iran. Rival genres (pop music, rap music, rock music, traditional music, etc.) are genres that gradually emerged and developed since the 1920s. Relying on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of cultural field I point out the important music genres in post-revolutionary Iran that act as a means of expressing conflict over the borders of the field, and why in this field, contrary to Bourdieu’s theory, instead of a bipolar situation, a multi-genre situation prevails. Then, with the data obtained from my previous research and that of others who mostly live in Iran, I try to depict a picture of music consumption based on the rival music genres in the field and show how, contrary to the ideals and slogans of the Islamic Revolution, under the influence of global youth culture, the consumption of popular music has become the dominant consumption.Key Words: Culturefield of music productionglobal youth cultureIranian culturemusic consumptionmusic genresmusic tastepopular musicpost-revolutionary Iranian culture Disclosure StatementThe author reported no conflict of interests in the research for or writing of this article.Notes1 P. Bourdieu (Citation1993) The Field of Cultural Production: Essays on Art and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press), p. 42.2 M. Mohammadi (Citation2017) Modal Modernities: Formations of Persian Classical Music and the Recording of a National Tradition (Create Space: An Amazon.com Company), p. 88.3 J. During (2004[1984]) Sonnat va Tahavol dar Mosigi-ye Irani [La musique iranienne: Tradition et évolution, Paris: Editions Recherche sur les civilisations] (Tehran: Toos Publication), p. 31.4 L. C. Miller (Citation1999) Music and Song in Persia: The Art of Avaz (London: Curzon Press); L. Nooshin (Citation1996) The Processes of Creation and Recreation in Persian Classical Music, Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Goldsmiths’ College.5 Miller, Music and Song in Persia: The Art of Avaz, p. 34.6 Ibid, p. 52.7 Ibid, p. 29.8 H. Salehyar (Citation2015) The Revival of Iranian Classical Music during the Second Pahlavi Period: The Influence of the Politics of “Iranian-ness”, Unpublished Doctoral thesis, Department of Music, University of Alberta.9 M. Gelbart (Citation2021) Romanticism, the Folk, and Musical Nationalisms, in: Benedict Tylor (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Music and Romanticism, pp. 74–91 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).10 M. Shahabi (Citation2003) Jahani-shodan-e Javani: Khorde Farhangha-ye Javani dar Asr-e Jahani-shodan [Globalization of Youth: Youth Subcultures in the Age of Globalization], Quarterly Journal of Youth Studies, 1(5), p. 9.11 G. Rekabtalaei (Citation2019) Iranian Cosmopolitanism: A Cinematic History, pp. 184–231 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).12 N. Siamdoust (Citation2017) Soundtrack of the Revolution: The Politics of Music in Iran (Stanford University Press), p. 46.13 A. Youssefzadeh (Citation2000) ","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"159 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135616227","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Feeling of Insecurity and Hope in the Future: Case Study of Tehran","authors":"Adel Abdollahi","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2266868","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2266868","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractIn recent decades, Iranian society has experienced rapid socio-economic changes that seriously affect feelings of hope in the future (HF) among social groups, especially in metropolitan areas such as Tehran. This study on HF, which I conducted in 2019, provides a gender analysis of HF for Tehran residents based on selected demographic variables and indicators of socio-economic and psychological insecurities. It also analyzes organizational and public trust by applying the Classification and Regression Trees (CART). I selected the participants from different areas of Tehran: 590 men and 610 women out of a population of 4,839,249 (3,054,715 men and 1,784,534 women) using two-stage stratified sampling with Probability Proportional to Size (PPS), and I completed with them structured questionnaires. The results showed that HF of Tehran residents is correlated with their gender (P-value = 0.033). Thus, two distinct trees with over 60% accuracies were fitted. Three influential variables on men’s HF were age, socio-economic insecurity, and public trust. Young men had higher HF than older ones.Key Words: Classification and regression trees (CART)Hope in the future (HF)Psychological insecuritysocio-economic insecurityTehran AcknowledgmentsI am immensely grateful to Professor Mostafa Azkia (Tehran University), who invited me to participate in this special issue, which is in honour of his 40+ plus years of promoting sociological research in Iran. I also would like to express my gratitude to Professor Eric Hooglund (Editor of Middle East Critique) for sharing his pearls of wisdom with me during the editing of this article. I thank my colleagues, Dr. Arezoo Bagheri and Dr. Mahsa Saadati at the National Institute for Population Research in Tehran, each of whom provided insight and expertise that were of great assistance in the research, and especially for their statistical assistance, although they may not agree with all the interpretations/conclusions in this article. In addition, I thank all the anonymous reviewers for their insights.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Ann K.S. Lambton (Citation2000) Theory of government in Iran, trans. into Perian by Ch. Pahlavan (Tehran: Giv).2 Homa Katouzian (Citation2004) The short-term society: A study in the problems of long-term political and economic development in Iran. In: Middle Eastern Studies, 40, 1, p. 1.3 For instance, the average Iranian life expectancy increased for the whole country in both rural and urban areas from 58.9, 62.6, and 55.4 years in 1976 to 75.06, 74.2, 73.2 years in 2016, respectively (Statistical Centre of Iran, Citation1976; Citation2016).4 Ali Asadi. (Citation1977) Cultural Trends and Social Attitudes in Iran, Tehran: Research Institute of Communication Sciences and Development of Iran; and Mohsen Goodarzi (2004) Values and attitudes of Iranians (Tehran:5 Gholam Reza Ghaffari, “Measuring the social capital (second wave),” p. 153","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135616149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Iran’s Demographic Transition and Its Potential for Development","authors":"Mohammad Mirzaei, Rasoul Sadeghi","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2270347","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2270347","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Over the past half-century, Iran has experienced unprecedented demographic transition. With a population over 85 million, Iran’s population growth recently has declined below one per cent per year, compared with nearly four per cent in the 1980s. This phenomenal decline is the result of social developments along with the re-introduction of a family planning program, which progressively brought the total fertility rate (TFR) down to below-replacement level since 2000. That is, from around seven children per woman in the mid-1980s–and despite the reversal of population policies toward pronatalist since 2010–the total fertility rate had decreased to 1.7 children per woman in 2021, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic shocks. Life expectancy at birth has tripled in the last century (1920-2020) from 25 to 75 years. There have been important changes in the age structure of Iran’s population, with the under-15 population decreasing from 40 per cent in 1996 to 20 per cent in 2021. In contrast, the working-age population (ages 15 to 64) has increased substantially to over 70%, indicating that Iran has entered a ‘demographic window of opportunity’. Accompanied by rising levels of educational attainment among both men and women, this demographic window has the potential to create socio-economic opportunities for Iran over the next three decades, provided that adequate economic conditions, public policies and youth employment are prepared.Key Words: age structure transitiondemographic windoweconomic developmenteconomic policiesIran AcknowledgmentThe authors gratefully acknowledge valuable comments and editing by Prof. Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 Julian Bharier (Citation1968) A Note on the Population of Iran: 1900–1966, Journal of Population Studies, 22 (2), pp. 273–279.2 Mahdi Amani (Citation1996) A Historical Outlook at the Trends in Birth and Death Rates and the Identification of the Stages of Demographic Transition in Iran, Journal of Population, 13–14, p. 73.3 Statistical Center of Iran (1986–2016) Results of the National Census of Population and Housing 1986, 1996, 2006, 2011, and 2016 (Tehran: Statistical Center of Iran).4 Rasoul Sadeghi, Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, and Saeedeh Shahbazin (Citation2020) Internal Migration in Iran, in: M. Bell, A. Bernard, E. Charles-Edwards & Y. Zhu (eds), Internal Migration in the Countries of Asia (New York: Springer International Publishing), pp. 295–317.5 Hassan Saraie (Citation1997) The First Phase of Demographic Transition in Iran, Journal of Social Sciences, 9–10, p. 61.6 Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-Shavazi, ‎ Meimanat Hosseini-Chavoshi, Majid Koosheshi and Mohsen Naghavi (Citation2005) Trends and Emerging Issues of Health and Mortality in the Islamic Republic of Iran, In: United Nation (eds). Emerging Issues of Health in Mortality in the Asia and Pacific Region, p. 154.7 Mohammad Jalal Abbasi-S","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"4 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135617748","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Urbanized Rural Women: A Study in Rural Areas of Gilan, Isfahan, and Semnan Provinces","authors":"Sohelia Alirezanejad, Nafiseh Azad","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2267768","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2267768","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Considering the changing circumstances of Iranian rural women’s lives, do they still fulfill traditional roles? Have their lifestyles and expectations of themselves changed? To answer these questions, this long-term anthropological research was conducted in seven villages in three different and diverse provinces: Gilan, Isfahan, and Semnan. Our findings showed that some female roles in the villages have been eliminated or shifted to men due to developmental interventions. Women do not consider themselves in charge of the family’s economic activities. Instead, they tend to share the values of middle-class urban homemakers. They have pushed to abandon some of their traditional economic production roles, and consequently, they have lost access to financial resources and the public arena of the village. In a sense, they might have lost their bargaining power after some developmental interventions.Key Words: Iranrural developmentwomen AcknowledgmentsWe would like to express our sincere gratitude to the men and women in these seven villages who always welcomed us to their communities over the years. They kindly answered our questions and familiarized us with their situation.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Iranian Population Indexes between Demographic indicators of Iran over time (1956–2016), Statistical Centre of Iran, Available online at: https://bit.ly/3HlPE98, Accessed May 14, 2022.2 H. Soroushmehr, M. Azami, N. Mehregan, & A. Yaghobi Farani (Citation2011) Investigation of Socioeconomic Status of Rural Women and Effective Factors on its Improvement (Case Study: Hamedan County), Rural Research, 1(1), pp. 141–163.3 H. Soroushmehr, M. Azami, N. Mehregan & A. Yaghobi Farani (Citation2018) The Role of Government Investments in the Sustainable Quality of Rural Life, Research & Rural Planning, 7(2), pp. 63–77.4 S. Moshiri, M. Mahdavei, & M. Sadegh Olyaye (Citation2009) The Impact of Literacy and Labour of Women in the Rural Households’ Income (A Case Study: The Divandareh Town, Kordestan Province), Geography and Development, 7(14), p. 71.5 F. Pasban (2006) Economic and Social Factors of Rural Women in Iran (1967 to 2004), Agricultural Economics and Development, 53 (14), pp. 153–176.6 F. Dadvarkhani. (Citation2006) Rural Development and Women’s Work Challenges in Iran, Geographical Researches, 53(38), p. 182.7 S. Alirezanejad & F. Banihashem (Citation2012) Gender and Development: A Glimpse on Demographic Changes in Iranian Rural Areas, Iranian Social Development Studies, 4(2), 81–93.8 E. SamAram (Citation2002) Re-socialization of Rural Women in the Process of Economic Development (Tehran: Office of Rural Women, Ministry of Jihad Agriculture), pp. 384–385.9 S. Sheibani (Citation2020) The Prominent Role of Women’s Employment in Reverse Migration to Villages Available online at: https://bit.ly/3Ho770V, accessed January14, 2023.10 S. Moshiri, M. Mahdavei, & M. Olyaye (Citation2009) The Impact ","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"76 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135616226","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Lasting Impact of Trump’s ‘Deal of the Century’ on the Question of Palestine","authors":"Ibrahim Fraihat, Basem Ezbidi","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2261082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2261082","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In 2017 US President Donald Trump launched the ‘Deal of the Century’ (DoC) to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Although Trump is no longer in office, the impact of the DoC lingers and will continue affecting future approaches to the conflict and its resolution. This article argues that the Trump DoC profoundly impacted the colonial order in Palestine, destroying further the illusion that a just settlement addressing the plight of the Palestinians could be reached. The DoC’s impact has affected three significant areas: the vision of a resolution, the approach to conflict resolution, and the venue where the conflict occurs. It helped shift the vision from two-state solution to none, significantly undermining the approach that was based on negotiation and third-party mediation, and assisted in creating a new regional versus international venue for the conflict.Key Words: Deal of the centuryIsraelIsraeli-Palestinian conflictPalestineTrump Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 See Mounir Akash (Citation2013) The right to sacrifice the other, America and genocide. (Beirut: Dar Riad Al-Rayes) [in Arabic].2 See Robert Freedman, ed., Israel and the United States: Six Decades of US-Israeli Relations, (Westview Press, 2012). See also Khaled Elgindy. Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, from Balfour to Trump. Brookings Institution Press, 2019.3 Yasser Arafat ‘may have been poisoned with polonium,’ BBC News, November 6, 2013, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-24838061. Accessed on August 21, 2023.4 Noam Chomsky (1999) Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (London: Pluto Press).5 Edward W. Said (2001) The End of the Peace Process: Oslo and After (Vintage Books).6 Naseer Aruri (Citation2003) Dishonest Broker: The Role of the United States in Palestine and Israel Publisher (South End Press).7 Rashid Khalidi (Citation2014) Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle (Beacon Press).8 United States Department of State (n.d.) The Abraham Accords Declaration. United States Department of State. Available online at: https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords, accessed on January 23, 2023.9 See the full plan online at: Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People. Trump White House Archives (January 2020). Available online at: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Peace-to-Prosperity-0120.pdf, accessed on Aug. 23, 2023.10 Tariq Dana and Ali Jarbawi (2022) Whose Autonomy? Conceptualising ‘Colonial Extraterritorial Autonomy’ in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Politics, 43 (1), p. 107.11 Ilan Pappe (2020) The Steal of the Century: Robbing Palestinians of Their Past and Future, The Arab World Geographer, 23 (1), p.9.12 Ibid.13 Patrick Wolfe (Citation2006) Settler Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native, Journal of Genocide Research, 8 (4), p. 387–409. See also on s","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135728601","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Theory of Uneven and Combined Development and the Sociopolitical Transformations in Syria and Libya","authors":"Faruk Yalvaç, Hikmet Mengütürk","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2271761","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2271761","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article explores the constitutive impact of the ‘international’ on the sociopolitical transformations in Syria and Libya through the lens of the theory of Uneven and Combined Development (UCD). The conventional and numerous critical analyses of Syrian and Libyan sociopolitical change suffer from a Eurocentric and stagist understanding of development. This paper argues that development problems can be better conceptualized with an interactive framework made possible by the UCD theory. In this context, we focus on how the expansion and consolidation of capitalism through the dynamics of UCD have concretely shaped the process of sociopolitical transformation in Syria and Libya to shed light on how the international and the local have articulated to produce the socioeconomic and political outcomes in these two states. We conclude by arguing that the theory of UCD provides an alternative conceptualization in explaining the specific development trajectories in both countries.Key Words: DevelopmentLibyaSyriaTrotskyUneven and Combined Development AcknowledgementThe authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors of the journal for their valuable feedback and constructive comments on an earlier version of this article.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 See Justin Rosenberg (Citation2006) Why Is There No International Historical Sociology?,European Journal of International Relations, 12(3), pp. 307–40; (2010) Basic Problems in the Theory of Uneven and Combined Development. Part II: Unevenness and Political Multiplicity, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 23(1), pp. 165–189; (2013) The “Philosophical Premises” of Uneven and Combined Development, Review of International Studies, 39(3), pp. 1–29; (2020); Results and Prospects: An Introduction to the CRIA Special Issue on UCD, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 34(2), pp. 146–63; (2022) Debating Uneven and Combined Development/Debating International Relations: A Forum, Millennium, 50(2), pp. 1–37.See also, Alex Callinicos & Justin Rosenberg (2008) Uneven and Combined Development: The Social-Relational Substratum of 'the International'?:An Exchange of Letters, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 21(1), pp. 77–112; Jamie Allinson & Alexander Anievas (2009) The Uses and Misuses of Uneven and Combined Development: An Anatomy of a Concept, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 22(1), pp. 47–67; Alexander Anievas & Kerem Nişancıoğlu (2015) How the West Came to Rule: The Geopolitical Origins of Capitalism (London: Pluto Press); Sam Ashman (Citation2010) Capitalism, Uneven and Combined Development, and the Transhistoric, in Mark Rupert & Hazel Smith (eds) Historical Materialism and Globalization, pp. 183–96 (London: Routledge); Neil Davidson (Citation2009) Putting the Nation Back into ‘the International', Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 22(1), pp. 9–28; Davidson (Citation2018) The Frontiers of Une","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135779966","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Historical Overview of Development’s Impact on Rural and Urban Governance in Iran","authors":"Mostafa Azkia, Hossein Imani Jajarmi","doi":"10.1080/19436149.2023.2268881","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/19436149.2023.2268881","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The constitutional revolution in 1906 was the beginning of a new era for Iran. A national parliament was established for making laws that established modern institutions such as city and village councils and mayors over the decades. Urban governance was renewed and the land reforms in the 1960s transformed rural governance, changed landlord– peasant relations and reduced the traditional authority of village headman (kadkhodas) in village administration. The 1979 revolution introduced a new kind of local governance, Islamic councils for governing cities and villages. This article discusses the main changes and challenges of local governance in Iran by using theoretical concepts of dependent development. The changing pattern of authority and penetration of state bureaucracy through the creation of several rural and urban organizations before and after the Revolution of 1979 is discussed. The article also explains how the establishments of these rural and urban institutions have helped to increase the domination of the state officials within both cities and villages.Key Words: BureaucracycentralismdevelopmentgovernanceIran Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Fernando Henrique Cardoso & Enzo Faletto (Citation1979) Dependency and Development in Latin America (Berkeley: University of California Press).2 John Foran (Citation1999) Fragile Resistance: A History of Social Transformations in Iran, From the Safavid Era to the Years Following the Islamic Revolution [Persian translation by A. Tadayon] (Tehran: RASA Institute for Cultural Services), p. 288.3 Hossein Mahdavi (Citation1970) The Pattern and Problems of Economic Development in Rentier States: The Case of Iran, in: M.A. Cook (ed.), Studies in Economic History of the Middle East from the Rise of Islam to the Present Day, p. 258 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).4 Mohsen Modir Shanehchi (Citation2000) Centralism and Underdevelopment in Contemporary Iran, p. 361 (Tehran : RASA Institute for Cultural Services).5 Ibid, p. 31.6 Homa Katouzian (Citation1993 (Political Economy of Iran, vol. 2. [Persian translation by M. R. Nafisi and K. Azizi], pp. 4–53 (Tehran: Papirus Publications).7 Ali Asghar Shamim (Citation1992) Iran in Ghajarid Era: 13th Century to the First Half of the 14th Lunar Century, p. 223 (Tehran: Elmi Publications).8 A. S. Malikof (Citation1979) The Establishment of Reza Khan Dictatorship in Iran [Persian translation by S. Irani], p. 66 (Tehran: the Pocket books Company).9 Fred Halliday (Citation1979) Iran, Dictatorship and Development [Persian translation by M. Yalghani and A. Tolou], p. 24 (Tehran: Elm Publications).10 Foran, op. cit., p. 339.11 Ervand Abrahamian (Citation1998) Iran Between Two Revolutions [Persian translation by A. Golmohammadi and M. A. Fatahi], p. 541 (Tehran: Nashr-e Ney Publications).12 Katouzian, “Political Economy,” p. 225.13 Jahangir Amouzgar (Citation1996) The Rise and Fall of Pahlavi Dynasty [Persian","PeriodicalId":44822,"journal":{"name":"Middle East Critique","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135884036","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}