Suchergebnisse

This article investigates the political role of social theories in contemporary Iran. It focuses, specifically, on how the 1979 Revolution marks a passage in Iranian political and social thought from political radicalism informed by Marxism to reformist liberalism inspired by local readings of Weber, Habermas, and Giddens. By investigating the writings of public intellectuals and political activists involved in Iran's reform movement, the article traces their transformation from leftist revolutionary radicals to liberal proponents of free market, democracy, and religious pluralism. It will be argued that an inadequate understanding of economic issues underlies the political failings of this movement.

What does it matter who has what position in the same-sex sexual act? The difference can be life and death. This paper, drawing on sociology of punishment and the critiques of cultural determinism in explaining capital punishment, examines the new penal code of Iran (2013) with respect to same-sex sexual acts between men, analyzing it in terms of its literal and symbolic significance for homosexual men in Iran and its broader meaning and function within the current socio-political and economic situation of Iran. The new penal code makes distinction between male same-sex partners in terms of their respective position during intercourse. In a somewhat counter-intuitive manner, the penetrating man receives more leniency than the one who is penetrated. On the surface, we note greater leniency towards a whole class of gay men (the "tops"). But beneath the surface, some of the new provisions reveal potential anxieties around masculinity and the alteration in relationship between punishment and national identity in Iran as the country grapples with significant internal and geopolitical challenges. Our paper contributes to the literature on sociology of punishment that considers the interplay between global and national politics and the role of sexuality and gender in analyzing capital punishment.

En se référant à des exemples précis de théoriciens reconnus ou non de la sociologie duxixeau début duxxesiècle, et en prenant en compte les écrits de Georg Simmel quant à la détermination quantitative des groupes sociaux comme cadre théorique et point thématique de départ, cet essai considère la diversité des formes de connaissances qui caractérisent certains des textes fondateurs de la sociologie. Nous nous concentrons en particulier sur l'utilisation de tableaux statistiques, d'enquêtes, ou d'autres moyens de générer et de rendre compte d'une connaissance empirique au sein du travail de théoriciens sociaux classiques tels que Durkheim et Tarde, Marx et Engels, Max et Alfred Weber, ainsi que des données numériques sur lesquelles ils se sont appuyés ou qu'ils ont générées, cela incluant Quetelet, Kay-Shuttleworth et Du Bois. Nous conclurons en regardant en quoi un examen des méthodes empiriques et statistiques en sociologie classique nous aide à voir que le conflit entre les approches qualitatives et quantitatives qui divise la sociologie d'aujourd'hui est en grande partie dû à l'évolution ultérieure de la division disciplinaire du travail et d'une spécialisation professionnelle de la connaissance, un problème que les travaux de Simmel nous aident à exposer et à traiter.