Rethinking the Nation-Building Project in Iran
Volume 25, Issue 3, Summer 2025, Pages 101-123
https://doi.org/10.22034/jsi.2025.2032363.1724
sayed shamsodin sadeghi, Masoud Akhavankazemi, kamran lotfi
Abstract In Iran, due to reasons such as the weakness in the lack of civil movements and organizations, the divergence of subcultures, the lack of a vision based on a written program in order to design and explain an appropriate model of nation-building, and Such other cases, the nation-building project has always remained unsuccessful and incomplete, and we have always witnessed that this category has not progressed in parallel with state-building. In fact, the nation is a soft and abstract concept, and creating a nation structure requires providing specific materials and materials in order to establish the form of a sustainable nation and bring it to the forefront. These infrastructures can be described in dimensions and indicators such as the state of social communications, ease of movement of elites, integration in the fields of culture and language, strengthening and rationalizing bureaucratic processes, in order to complete the nation-building project. Accordingly, the main question of this research is: based on what model can the development of the nation and the nation-building process in Iran be designed and explained? In response to this assumption, it can be proposed that the development of the nation requires the existence of infrastructures and mechanisms based on considering it as a project in various cultural, social and political dimensions, appropriate to the structure and context of Iranian society, by the government, elites, civil institutions, parties, organizations and the people. It should be noted that this research, using the causal method and utilizing the theoretical framework of nation-building by Karl Deutsch, seeks to explain this issue and answer the main question of the research, namely the failure to realize a new model of nation-building
Reflections on the Contemporary State and Society in Iran A Theoretical Endeavor to Evaluate Formation of the Nation-State, and to Offer an Alternative Framework
Volume 13, Issue 13, Winter 2012, Pages 154-168
F Nosratinejhad
Abstract The state in contemporary Iran is a relatively neglected subject, especially by sociologists. One of the few studies conducted on this matter is an article by Hamid Reza Jalaeipour titled: A Theoretical Attempt for Evaluation formation of the Nation-State in Contemporary Iran. He, in that article, tries to presents an analysis regarding the situation of the nation-state in contemporary Iran. Since participation of the academic community on this matter can shed light on certain aspects of the nature of the state in the contemporary Iranian history, what was in my mind in writing the present article was twofoldan: an attempt to present a critique of Jalaeipour's paper, and to open the way in this regard. Reflecting on the afore-said article leads one to see that the writer has confused the category of nation-state with that of the transition to democracy (and its ups and downs). Such a confusion has led him to offer a definition for the nation-state which is neither consistent with those of the thinkers nor with the historical facts. Aside from that, on the subject of the nation-state, he uses theories of two thinkers which are essentially different from one another. Due to the conceptual confusion the writer's analysis regarding the formation process and the situation of the nation-state in Iran is not sound. The present article attempts to provide an alternative framework on the subject through a critical interpretation of the said article.