Iran's Green Movement: A Foucauldian Account of Everyday Resistance, Political Contestation and Social Mobilization in the Post-Revolutionary Period
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Primary Pourmokhtari_Navid_201803_PhD.pdf (2.69 MB)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7939/R3W669Q2C
Date
2018-06
Author
Navid Pourmokhtari Yakhdani
University of Alberta
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Political Science
Supervisor / Co-Supervisor and Their Department(s)
Mojtaba Mahdavi (University of Alberta, Political Science)
Abstract
In June 2009 there appeared on the streets of Tehran and other major Iranian cities something unprecedented in the thirty-year history of the Islamic Republic: immense crowds engaged in spontaneous forms of collective action directed against what was widely perceived to be election fraud. The so-called Green Movement had emerged upon the scene. This study uses a Foucauldian theoretical/analytical, that is, discursive, framework to examine the emergence and development of the 2009 Green Movement. Such an approach emphasizes the context, or the local and historical specificities, in which mass oppositional movements arise, develop and conduct their operations while at the same time foregrounding an account of multiple modernities that works to transcend modernist assumptions embedded in some mainstream social movement theories, in particular the notion of a Western modernity that is all-encompassing. I begin by making a case for the Green Movement as a movement of movements, the purpose being to reveal its disparate constituencies. I also critique mainstream social movement theories, focusing on their universalistic assumptions and West-centric orientation, and by implication totalizing and grand-causal narratives, that serve to obfuscate rather than elucidate social movements in the Middle East and North Africa. On the basis of this critique, and drawing upon Michel Foucault's governmentality-power-resistance nexus model, I describe and analyze the power modalities, disciplinary, biopolitical, and sovereign, employed by the Islamic Republic to governmentalize the masses. It is at the point of application of these power modalities that an immense field of possibility opens up for resistance to the status quo, both social and political. Three research questions are addressed: What set of conditions, historical, economic, social and political, gave rise to the 2009 Green Movement? What ends did the Green Movement seek to achieve, and to what extent were they realized? To what degree did it signify a paradigm shift in Iran's social and political landscape? In answering these queries, I bring to bear a triangular methodology consisting of six semi-structured interviews with authorities on Iran's post-revolutionary period as well as activists who participated in the pivotal events of that period; discourse analysis focusing on the Iranian constitution and the relevant government policy documents and publications and official speeches; and archival analysis of primary and secondary sources. This will provide the historical background, perspectives and insights required both to analyze and explicate the historical, social and political conditions responsible for the emergence of the Green Movement and grasp how collective action was enabled and organized. Two conclusions may be drawn from this study. First, the Green Movement may be more constructively viewed as what I call a movement of movements, by which I mean a mega social movement consisting of smaller oppositional movements, or in Foucauldian terms, a coalition of smaller movements of counterconduct. Second, this movement of movements marks a particular historical phase in the development of a home-grown democracy in post-revolutionary Iran, and for this reason signals a paradigmatic paradigm shift with profound social implications for transforming the country's political landscape.
Item Type
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_46ec
Title
Iran's Green Movement: A Foucauldian Account of Everyday Resistance, Political Contestation and Social Mobilization in the Post-Revolutionary Period
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Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission.
Subject/Keywords
Foucault
Counterconduct
Middle East and North Africa
Iran's Green Movement
Social Movement Theories
Social Movements
MENA
Collections
Theses and Dissertations
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Iran’s Green Movement: A Foucauldian Account of Everyday Resistance, Political Contestation and Social Mobilization in the Post-Revolutionary Period.
by Navid Pourmokhtari Yakhdani
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
Department of Political Science
University of Alberta
© Navid Pourmokhtari Yakhdani, 2018
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Preface
Part of Chapter 1, in addition to Chapters 2, 5 and conclusion, of this dissertation were published in Sociology of Islam (2014) and Foucault Studies (2017).
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This work is dedicated to the uncelebrated multitudes who have sacrificed so much to create a better Iran and to my wife Shadan and daughter Mouness who are the light of my world.
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Acknowledgements
This work would not have been possible but for the efforts of several individuals.
I wish first and foremost to thank my supervisor, Dr. Mojtaba Mahdavi, Department of
Political Science, University of Alberta, for his generous support and unerring guidance during all phases of the project. Dr. Mahdavi fostered a climate of respect, free exchange of views, which provided the basis upon which to articulate ideas, operationalize concepts, and critically engage mainstream theories—a sine qua non for interrogating oppositional mass social movements.
Special thanks are owed my PhD committee members: Drs. Janine Brodie and Yasmeen
Abu-Laban, both with the Department of Political Science, University of Alberta. An authority on Foucault, Dr. Brodie provided key insights on the thought of one of critical social theory’s greatest luminaries and the chief influence on this work. A great debt of gratitude is also owed her for assisting me in grappling with the theoretical and methodological issues that so often emerged.
Dr. Abu-Laban proved invaluable in guiding the research, pointing out pitfalls to be
avoided, suggesting new avenues of research, and strengthening the project’s analytical and methodological underpinnings.
My sincerest and deepest thanks to all.
Finally, I wish to thank my wife for her unstinting support over the course of my PhD
studies. Despite my frequent absences and occasional doubts regarding the career path upon which I embarked upon, her faith in me never once wavered. Shadan will forever be my muse, inspiring me to speak truth to power. Thank you!
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Introduction
Chapter Breakdown 8
Introduction 14
Characterizing the Green Movement 14
Mainstream Social Movement Theories 18
Social Movement Theories and Specificities of MENA Oppositional Movements:
Mobilizing Structures and the Politics of Everyday Life 24
Social Movement Studies and MENA oppositional Movements 41
Iran’s Green Movement as a movement of movements 50
Conclusion 53
Chapter 2 Theorizing the Green Movement: A Foucauldian Model
Introduction 55
Social Sciences as Political Science: The Political Foucault 56
Foucault, Studies of Governmentality and the Power-resistance Nexus: A Constellational
Approach 66
Foucault, Governmentality and Movements of Counterconduct 78
Iran’s Islamist Governmentality: The Green Movement as a Localized Case of
Counterconduct 89
Triangular Research Methodology 94
Conclusion 98
Chapter 3 The Coming of a Disciplinary Society to Post-Revolutionary Iran: Ordinary Iranians and Everyday Resistance
Introduction 99
Governmentality: A Foucauldian Account of Power and Resistance 102
An Islamist Governmentality: The Islamic Republic and the Governmentalization of
Politics and Religion 103
The Emergence of a Disciplinary and Biopolitical Society in Post-Revolutionary
Iran 111
The Islamic Republic and the Governmentalization of Public Spaces 112
The Islamic Republic and the Governmentalization of Iranian Strata 116
The Islamic Republic: The Everyday Mechanics and Techniques of Control 122
The Islamic Republic and the Art of Repression 131
Post-Revolutionary Iran: Iranians, the Everyday Life and Everyday Resistance 139
Everyday Resistance and Post-Revolutionary Movements of Counterconduct 141
Conclusion 159
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Chapter 4 Social Mobilization and Political Contestation in Iran at the Turn of the Millennium: The 1999 Student Movement and the 2006 Women’s One Million Signature
Campaign
Introduction 161
Governmentality, Discourse, and the Politics of Contestation 164
The Death of the Ayatollah Khomeini: The Emergence of Two Antithetical
Discourses, One Absolutist the Other Reformist 169
Islamist Governmentality Negated: Reformism as a Religio-Democratized Governmental
Project 182
Political Contestation in post-1997 Iran: Reformist vs. Absolutists 196
Reformist and Absolutist Discourses and Students and the Battle of Ideas 205
The 1999 Student Uprising 212
Women and Politics of Social Contestation 219
Presence-as-Resistance: Women, Public Spaces, and the Politics of Contestation 231
The 2006 Women’s One Million Signature Campaign: The Everyday Politics of Social
Contestation 234
Conclusion 239
Chapter 5 The Green Movement as a Movement of Movements and the Rise of a Homegrown, RightsBased Society in Post-Revolutionary Iran
Introduction 241
Foucault, Governmentality and Counterconduct 245
Ahmadinejad’s Rise to Power: The Emergence of a Neo-Absolutist Discourse 254
The New Right, the Neo-Absolutist Discourse, and the Rise of a Neo-Islamist
Governmentality 258
Neo-Islamist Governmentalization in Practice: The Micro and Macro Practices of
Governing life 265
Presence-as-Resistance: The Everyday Politics of Negation and Rejection 275
The Months and Weeks Preceding the 2009 Presidential Election 285
The Green Movement as a Movement of Movements 292
A Homegrown Rights-based Society: Reformism-Reconfigured and the Rise of a New
Counterdiscourse in Post-Revolutionary Iran 299
Conclusion 310
Conclusion What were the Iranians Dreaming about in 2009?
The Green Movement of Counterconduct: A History of the Past, the Present and the
Future
The Green Movement: History, Presence, and Future 317
The Revolution of 1979 and the 2009 Green Movement: What were in 2009
Iranians Dreaming, Again? 319
The Post-Revolutionary Movements of Counterconduct: The Social as Political 329
The Green Movement, Counterconduct and its Counterparts within the
MENA Region 335
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Bibliography
List of Interviews 340
Farsi References 340
English References 355
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제시해주신 나비드 푸르모흐타리 야크다니(Navid Pourmokhtari Yakhdani)의 박사 학위 논문 <이란의 녹색 운동: 사후 혁명기 일상적 저항, 정치적 쟁의 및 사회적 동원에 대한 푸코적 설명(Iran's Green Movement: A Foucauldian Account of Everyday Resistance, Political Contestation and Social Mobilization in the Post-Revolutionary Period)>에 대한 요약과 평론이다.
<이란의 녹색 운동: 일상적 저항과 권리 기반 사회로의 패러다임 전환>
1. 서론 및 연구 목적
이 논문은 2009년 이란 대통령 선거 부정 의혹으로 촉발된 ‘녹색 운동(Green Movement)’을 미셸 푸코(Michel Foucault)의 통치성(governmentality), 권력, 저항의 담론적 틀을 통해 분석한다
2. 주요 내용 요약
가. 푸코적 분석 틀과 ‘이슬람주의 통치성’
저자는 푸코의 삼각형 모델(주권 권력, 규율 권력, 생명 권력)을 빌려 이란 이슬람 공화국의 통치 방식을 분석한다
나. 일상적 저항과 대항 품행(Counterconduct)
논문은 거대한 거리 시위 이전에 이미 이란인들의 일상 속에 ‘대항 품행’이 존재했음에 주목한다
다. 운동들의 운동으로서의 녹색 운동
2009년 녹색 운동은 학생, 여성, 청년, 노동자 등 서로 다른 이해관계를 가진 집단들이 ‘민주적 권리’와 ‘국가의 책임’이라는 보편적 가치 아래 결집한 거대 연대체였다
3. 평론: 학문적 가치와 한계
가. 학문적 가치: 이론적 혁신과 맥락의 회복
이 논문의 가장 큰 성과는 서구 중심적인 사회 운동 이론(자원 동원 이론, 정치 기회 구조 등)의 한계를 날카롭게 비판하고, 푸코의 이론을 중동의 비민주적 상황에 맞게 성공적으로 변용했다는 점에 있다
나. 방법론적 엄밀성: 삼각형 방법론
연구는 심층 인터뷰, 담론 분석, 아카이브 분석이라는 세 가지 방법론을 병행하여 객관성을 높였다
다. 한계 및 비판적 고찰
하지만 푸코의 이론을 지나치게 강조하다 보니, 경제적 요인이나 국제 관계와 같은 거시적 변수들이 상대적으로 과소평가된 측면이 있다
4. 결론
나비드 푸르모흐타리의 연구는 이란 녹색 운동을 단순한 정치적 격변이 아닌, 이슬람주의 통치성에 맞선 주체들의 ‘실존적 혁명’으로 그려냈다
참고 문헌:
Navid Pourmokhtari Yakhdani, "Iran's Green Movement: A Foucauldian Account of Everyday Resistance, Political Contestation and Social Mobilization in the Post-Revolutionary Period", University of Alberta, 2018.
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