Lecture by Ali Banuazizi

15 April 2019 - 14:30
  • Doelenzaal, Universiteitsbibliotheek UvA, Singel 425, Amsterdam.
  • 10 May 2019
  • 17-19 hours

CLASS, INEQUALITY, AND SOCIAL MOBILITY IN PRE-REVOLUTIONARY IRAN
lecture by Ali Banuazizi, Boston College    

Abstract
Rapid but uneven economic growth, a widening gap between the rich and the poor, and increasing marginalization and impoverishment of rural migrants in big cities are often mentioned among the causes of the 1979 Iranian revolution. After presenting a broad overview of the emerging class structure in the late Pahlavi period, the lecture analyzes the extent of poverty, income inequality, and social mobility in pre-revolutionary Iran, and the extent to which these factors may—or may not—have contributed to the revolutionary uprisings of the late 1970s.

Bio
Ali Banuazizi is Professor of Political Science at Boston College and Director of the Program in Islamic Civilization & Societies. He is the author of numerous articles on society, culture, and politics of Iran and the Middle East, and the coauthor (with A. Ashraf) of Social Classes, the State and Revolution in Iran (in Persian, 2008) and coeditor (with Myron Weiner) of three books on politics, religion and society in Southwest and Central Asia. He served as the founding editor of the journal of Iranian Studies for 14 years (1968-82) and Associate Editor of the Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World. He is a past President of the Association for Iranian Studies (AIS) and of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA).

This lecture is part of the Prince Sabbar Farman-Farmaian Annual Lectures.
Also see the Fellowships Prince Dr Sabbar Farman-Farmaian Research Project

Ali Banuazizi