Knowledge for Sale: Private Sociology Classes as a Form of Resistance in Iran?


Zohreh Bayatrizi, University of Alberta

This presentation examines aspects of the privatization trend in Iranian sociology by studying changes in teaching in the past two decades. Sociology is a highly politicized field in Iran (both by the state and its critics), and the teaching of sociology has long been constrained by political considerations and censorship, underfunding, and hiring policies that prioritize ideological over academic qualifications. Fee-based private courses outside the university that target specific topics have emerged in large part in response to the weakness in the content of higher education and student demands for better quality. We analyze these classes as evidence of the resilience shown by sociology, young scholars, and by public intellectuals in Iran and as a response to state attempts at academic crackdowns in the aftermath of the Green Movement (2009) and the Women, Life, Liberty Movement (2022). These classes open up a limited space for freedom of expression and critique because they are not as tightly controlled as universities. At the same time, the risk is that they might supplant the need and desire for better quality public higher education and reduce the pressure on universities to act. Private classes might be categorized as a neoliberal, market-oriented, and individualized solution to a bigger political problem. In a sense, one can argue that an individual-centred ideology has emerged in the name of countering and resisting hegemonic state ideology.

Non-presenting author: Reyhaneh Javadi, University of Alberta

This paper will be presented at the following session: