July 2010
1 post
Iranian Sociology and its Discontents
I recently returned from Gothenburg, Sweden and the quadrennial International Sociology Association’s World Congress. It’s kind of like the World Cup of sociology. There I sat in on a session organized by the Iranian Sociology Association, where a few presenters, including its president Hossein Serajzadeh, discussed the state of social science in Iran. I have visited many sociology...
June 2010
1 post
Lawrence on Collier and Mintz on Haiti
The field of economic development has more popular books in print than was the case ten or twenty years ago. In fact, the last decade where such a volume of print existed on poorer countries and their prospects was the 1970s. That previous era, however, generated a more critical perspective on the promises of “catching up” to the wealthy Northern states. Now, within the popular...
May 2010
2 posts
Yes, We Take Dollars
If you recall, a few years ago a lot of stink was made about Iran moving the currency used in its oil transactions from the dollar to the euro. This fit neatly into the swirling conspiracies of the day. For US hawks, this was a sign that Iran was an “ideological” actor hellbent on undermining US hegemony in the global economy. For some on the political left, who also seem to equate...
Appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for... →
Last week I appeared on a panel on Iran’s economy at the Carnegie Endowment in DC which is now available to watch online. At least, it was supposed to be on Iran’s economy. But like many events in the beltway, it ended up becoming focused on US policy instead of actual events inside Iran. Still, some discussion is better than no discussion - I see that after my MERIP piece on...
March 2010
1 post
Are the Iranian Poor a Bunch of Welfare Queens?
The picture we usually get of the Iranian poor in the media is one of two extremes: the wretched of the earth, or the equivalent of Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queens.” (If you remember, Reagan attacked the meager US welfare system by inventing a group of people that did not even exist: pink-Cadillac driving, children producing, unwilling to work black women.)
One hears similar things about Iran,...
December 2009
1 post
My Recent Piece in Inside Iran
I have a new piece on the debate over poverty in the online analysis site Inside Iran - read it here. Most discussions of Iran’s economy make it sound like the place is falling apart. I’ve never seen a good comparison of Iran with other middle income states on basic indicators of welfare, industry, education, etc. Instead we hear a lot of catastrophic language. Critique is fine,...
October 2009
1 post
Does Iran's Urban Working Class Have a Rural...
There has been increased labor unrest in Iran during the past few years, and just in the past few weeks organized protests by workers have occurred in Ahvaz and Shiraz. Much less attention is paid to these types of protests compared to the recent student unrest within universities, yet Iran has a long history of labor activism. The Abadan oil strike of 1945 was the largest coordinated labor...
September 2009
1 post
On the Media, Kapuściński version
Time goes fast when you’re having fun, so it looks like posts here will be few and far between. But, sometimes one has to share a quote.
The departure of many foreign journalists from Iran after the election, coupled with the intensification of the media spotlight, proved to be an odd experience. I picked up a copy of Ryszard Kapuściński’s The Soccer War while I was in Copenhagen. ...
August 2009
1 post
Should We Use PPP-Adjusted Data to Discuss Global...
Most economists, even my favorite ones, use Gross Domestic Product adjusted for purchasing power parity (PPP) when they compare the “wealth of nations.” In my last post, I made a short case for why comparing income levels in the world economy should use national income calculated at foreign exchange rates (FX). Given that my assertion falls in the minority position in the world of social...
July 2009
3 posts
Did Iran Lose its Chance of Catching Up With the...
Does Iran’s economic trajectory over the 20th century look very different from most other countries in the Third World/South? This is an important question which is rarely asked. While comparisons between time periods within a single country can be useful - say, comparing average growth rates of the Pahlavi monarchy with the Islamic Republic - they can also be highly misleading and...
The Privatization Panacea in Iranian Politics
Some foreign analyses of the post-election events made the argument that the factions and politicians associated with the Mousavi campaign, especially Hashemi Rafsanjani, were planning to rush through a privatization of Iran’s state-owned companies and assets if they had won. The usual epithet of the left – neoliberal – was hurled at Mousavi and his circle.
A quick aside: two words are used quite...
CUMINet commentary
Last week I reiterated some of my comments here on the excellent Danish blog CUMINet, run by Rasmus Elling. This was partly me testing the e-waters. The only comment I received was understandably disconcerted. Yet I was not implying that the possibilities for a renewal of “people power” were forever gone. I was simply trying to add to a beginning critique of the reformist faction...
June 2009
2 posts
A Quick Post-Mortem, and Something Left Out of the...
Now that the demobilization of the opposition rallies has generally occurred, we can try to make sense of what was a most chaotic event. I am not implying that anything is back to normal … let’s just say it is back to quasi-normal. 2009 will be remembered as an historic year in Iranian history, whatever happens hereafter, to join 1906, 1953, 1979, and 1997 in the annals.
The social movement...
Revolution Redux?
I’m sitting here in a lower-middle class neighborhood in Tehran right now, listening to choral chants of Allah-u Akbar outside my window. It’s been the third night that I’ve had the pleasure of doing so. There’s no need to recap here all of the events of the last 9 days. The June 9 election results were evidently manipulated to such a large degree that even supporters of Mr. Ahmadinejad were...
April 2009
1 post
Some Different Ways To Think About Iran, in lieu...
Well, here we go - my initial foray into sociological myth-busting on Iran.
Much of my discussions with fellow Iranians usually come around to the reasons for the actual or perceived state of Iran’s economy, politics, and society in the world. Even when the array of grievances and complaints does not directly compare Iran with another country, a comparison is implicit (with the US often...