Iran and Covid-19

Mosleh, Ali Asghar; Jong, Abbas

doi:10.4324/9781003154037-11

Cited by 5 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…"Some laws and rules apply to many phenomena, some too few-however, none to all and none to just one" [55] (p. 60). Thus, each configuration implicitly refers to universal propositions and laws, but they apply and are true only to the relevant configuration [56].…”

Section: Social Configurationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Theory and Navigating Indeterminacy: A Configurational Analysis of Iranian Youth’s Identity Construction in Contemporary Iran

Jong

2024

Societies

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An emerging disparity within contemporary social science highlights a disconnection between the world in the process of metamorphosing and cosmopolitanization and the knowledge of the social world that is still trapped in the cognitive assumptions of modern episteme, which provided the conditions for the emergence of modern social sciences a century ago. This divide inhibits the efficacy of social analysis in comprehending and elucidating contemporary phenomena. This article advocates for a shift in the ontology of social theory and science towards the cosmopolitanization of the world, characterized by the prioritization of indeterminacy and fluidity in the construction of social phenomena. It investigates the epistemological implications and prerequisites of this ontological transformation, favoring a post-foundationalist approach as the most suitable epistemological framework. In response to the challenges posed by the uncertainty and indeterminacy of cosmopolitanization, after reviewing some of the existing theoretical efforts to address and provide alternatives to this challenge, the article proposes the examination of social configurations as the most fitting subjects for study. This approach necessitates the suspension of conventional, given, regulated categories, and trans-historical theories. It underscores the importance of recognizing configurations as incomplete, contingent units shaped within specific historical contexts and moments. The fluidity, relationality, and indeterminacy of configurations situated between the universal and the singular make them suitable for analysis at the level of particular. After elaborating on the most important features of social configurations, finally, by employing the proposed theoretical framework, this article aims to investigate its effectiveness in analyzing the process of identity construction among Iranian youth in Tehran in the context of the cosmopolitanization of reality, particularly in the face of the Islamist regime of Iran’s official politics of identity. Through a review and revision of selected empirical studies on youth identity construction in the consumer spaces of Tehran, based on the idea of social configurations within the framework of cosmopolitanization, it is argued that the genuine understanding of identity politics in contemporary Iran is not rooted in conventional analytical norms and categories but rather in a comprehensible conceptual apparatus characterized by fluidity and indeterminacy, capable of effectively making sense of the conflict between the politics of determinacy and indeterminacy in Iranian everyday life.

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Section: Social Configurationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Theory and Navigating Indeterminacy: A Configurational Analysis of Iranian Youth’s Identity Construction in Contemporary Iran

Jong

2024

Societies

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“…As a result, it is not possible to assume a priori divisions and boundaries such as the private and the public, the religious and the secular, orthodoxy and heterodoxy, piety and non-piety, nation, religion, transnational, ethnic, and others, when examining social configurations. These divisions and boundaries are contingent and relational, contingent upon specific configurations (for more details about the idea of configuration see: Jong 2022Jong , 2023Mosleh and Jong 2021;Jong and Entezari 2023). In the post-foundationalist approach, which centers social configurations as the primary focus of social inquiry, many categories and requirements stemming from the secular episteme that heavily influences the study of political Islam are deferred.…”

Section: Political Islam As Social Configurationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Islam as an Incomplete and Contested Category: A Post-Foundationalist Revision

Jong

Ali

2023

Religions

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The exploration of the quiddity of political Islam and the diverse range of categories and terms associated with it has emerged as a prominent research agenda within the social and political sciences. The application of these terms to a wide array of heterogeneous phenomena and currents among Muslim populations worldwide, coupled with the utilization of multiple theoretical approaches to define and formulate them within the realm of social studies, has posed significant challenges to their usage. The inherent ambiguity and lack of determinacy surrounding the dominant categories and definitions prevalent in the study of political Islam have led to a decline in their explanatory capacity, giving rise to a host of theoretical, methodological, normative, and political dilemmas and predicaments. This problematic state, compounded by the extensive body of research in the field of political Islam, necessitates an epistemological interrogation into the prevailing categories and definitions within this scholarly domain. Through a critical examination of prevailing definitions within the field, particularly in relation to the idea of foundation, the present article draws on the post-foundationalist approach to propose a distinctive conceptual apparatus for understanding and interpreting the phenomena categorized under political Islam. By juxtaposing the notions of discursive tradition and social configuration, the article endeavors to construct a nuanced understanding of political Islam that not only incorporates and comprehends the singular characteristics of the objects of inquiry but also encompasses varying levels of universality in elucidating the social phenomena observed among Muslims and in the Islamic world.

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“…Rather than order, continuity, and rule, here, contingency and discontinuities should take precedence over social inquiries. By prioritizing an uncertain and indeterminate state (Mosleh and Jong, 2021), as well as deferring the centrality of the universal, disciplined, and homogeneous-those whose analysis considers a kind of essence as well as a myth of origin-the conditions of the possibility of different types of social heterogeneous and indeterminate configurations, are given priority. Therefore, instead of addressing entities and categories such as society and the social as "completed and pre-determinate categories, " by considering their contingency, we must examine the conditions of their possibility in terms of a particular historical constellation and at the moment of their actualization.…”

Section: The Politics Of Transnationalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modern episteme, methodological nationalism and the politics of transnationalism

Jong

2023

Front. Polit. Sci.

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Methodological nationalism can be understood in the broadest sense possible as any kind of correspondence between society and the unit of the nation-state. This equation can be traced and understood at two levels: firstly, within the socio-historical context of the rise of nationalism and the development of human and social sciences; and secondly, within the cognitive context of the emergence of nationalism and these sciences, or the modern episteme, in other words. By focusing on the latter, the present article aims to indicate that the problem of methodological nationalism can be effectively grasped by exploring the intricate interplay among modernity, the discourse of nationalism, and the emergence of social science, particularly concerning the modern episteme. It becomes apparent that the regime of foundationalist differentiation ingrained within the modern episteme has established the foundation for this correspondence or congruence—a regime that, while constructing determined, regulated, unified and completed categories, such as society and the social/nation-state and the national, simultaneously sets the ground for the exclusion of other non-social/non-national phenomena and events. In this paper, the objective is to demonstrate how, by disclosing the implementation of this regime as well as highlighting the contingent nature and, consequently, the conditions of the possibility of social phenomena in the path of their grounding, alongside prioritizing the indeterminate social configurations and arguing for a post-foundationalist approach and the politics of transnationalism, it becomes possible to overcome the problem of methodological nationalism. This, in turn, sets a basis for taking into account excluded and indeterminate phenomena and actors within a global context.

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Iran and Covid-19

Cited by 5 publications

References 1 publication

Social Theory and Navigating Indeterminacy: A Configurational Analysis of Iranian Youth’s Identity Construction in Contemporary Iran

Social Theory and Navigating Indeterminacy: A Configurational Analysis of Iranian Youth’s Identity Construction in Contemporary Iran

Political Islam as an Incomplete and Contested Category: A Post-Foundationalist Revision

Modern episteme, methodological nationalism and the politics of transnationalism

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