Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract Borders are the product of history, politics, and power, and border life has its own economy and culture. Accordingly, one of the most important features of the Kurdish regions, which has been represented in various ways in the media in recent years more than other aspects of border life, is the border and informal economy and specific concepts related to it, namely Kulbar, border bazaar, and smuggling. Understanding this type of economy as a phenomenon requires a careful study of the causes, contexts, and mechanisms that have led to the phenomenon of informal economy in a kind of multifaceted synergy. In this study, among the above factors, the focus is on the contexts that underlie the informal economy. The research method was critical ethnography, the method of collecting information was a combination of methods (interview, conversation, focus group, and documents) and the study context was Baneh border market. Findings showed that the outcome of the conflict of political forces and the border position of Baneh has been a kind of trade and border economy throughout history that after the rise of the modern government, became informal and underwent special changes with regional and global developments. At the same time, the most important contexts of this type of economy can be abstracted into four main categories: environmental problems, resource constraints, cultural affinity, and moderate religious tradition. Finally, based on the findings of the present study, negative and positive solutions are presented.
 

Abstract This paper is an attempt to evaluate the progress of the formation of “nation-state” in Iran. Contrary to scholars who argue that the process of “nation-state” building in Iran has not progressed during the last century, this paper illustrates how contemporary Iran has successfully cultivated most of the key features and elements of modern nation-states. It will, however, also focus on the main weaknesses of nation-state in Iran which are generally to do with the failure to develop a modern democracy. After a review of the theoretical literature on the features of modern-nation states, this paper will argue that the increasing institutional differentiation and division of labor, growth of middle class, growth of service and industry sector as opposed to agriculture sector, improved civil awareness, increasing involvement of women in public sphere, expansion of communications and media, rise of NGOs, and dominance of democratic discourse which are all among the features of contemporary Iranian society and politics, have set a suitable stage for the remedy of the democratic weaknesses of nation-state in Iran