Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Contemporary Iran has experienced the emergence of new social forces and actors, which have risen from the context of Iranian everyday life. The new actors set the ground for constructing or reconstructing new social realities, and make their own mark on various spheres of Iranian social life. The resurrection of everyday life in Iran has been associated with the suspension of many dominant political and cultural categories in Iran, and could challenge different layers of the dominant power and existing social division. It is possible to mention that a new social sphere has emerged in contemporary Iran which has various implications. Under which structural conditions has the new sphere been constructed? And how does this structural transformation pave the way for a transformed everyday life and its relevant forces and actors? This paper is trying to address these questions by considering the structural transformation in three lines within the last two decades. It is indicated that the effects of globalization, the transformation of political economy, and the novel politics of identity in Iran prepare the structural stage for constructing and resurrecting everyday life in Iran as a distinct sphere with totally different settings, functions, and features.