Mojtaba Mahdavi | University of Alberta (original) (raw)

Papers by Mojtaba Mahdavi

Cambridge University Press, 2014

Perceptions: Journal of International Affairs , 2015

Lexington Books; Rowman & Littlefield, 2020

Oxford University Press, 2023

Syracuse University Press, 2023

The Myth of Middle East Exceptionalism: Unfinished Social Movements Edited by Mojtaba Mahdavi

Sociology of Islam , 2024

The rise of the brics block has contributed to the emergence of a "multiplex world". This shift i... more The rise of the brics block has contributed to the emergence of a "multiplex world". This shift in power dynamics has revealed the crisis of the existing liberal international order, a relative decline in the U.S. power, and a gradual transition towards a post-American order. This article examines the dynamics of Sino-mena relations in a "multiplex world" where both the U.S. and the mena states have chosen "The Look East" policy. The U.S.-China geopolitical rivalry explains a shift in the U.S. foreign policy from the Middle East toward the Far East. The Middle East's "Look East Policy", however, is largely due to the needs for an alternative global partner. This article examines three pillars of the Sino-mena relations: the first pillar pertains to a broad category of energy, trade, investment, arms deal, security and geostrategic significance. The second pillar is centred around the Chinese policy of no military intervention and respecting the state sovereignty. The third pillar is pertinent to the "Chinese Model of Development" and what it means for the mena. It examines whether such relations might consolidate autocratic capitalism and neoliberalism without democracy and, or benefit mena civil societies' quest for a grassroots and egalitarian development and democracy.

Keywords Sino-mena relations-"multiplex world"-red capitalism-the Chinese model of development-"neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics"-cat theory
Sociology of Islam (2024) 1-24

This paper examines the complex relations between the global concepts of modernity and democracy,... more This paper examines the complex relations between the global concepts of modernity and democracy, and the local perception of culture and religion in the context of the Muslim world. The paper attempts to answer the following questions: Is the Muslim tradition/culture "exceptionally" immune to the process of democratization? If not, what does it mean to be a modern progressive Muslim today? Is the Western version of modernity a universal concept, or should Muslims seek a particular path to modernity? To what extent a Muslim democracy is a universal concept and to what degree is a particular model? The paper suggests that neither a hegemonic universalism nor an essentialist particularism can explain the complex relations between Islam and modernity. "Universalism from below" can better lead Muslims to democracy, given its equal distance from an Islamist cultural essentialism and a holistic hegemonic universalism. The paper applies the concept of "universalism...

Studies in Religion, 2014

Abstract: Ayatollah Khomeini and Ali Shariati are seen as twin pillars of revolutionary Islam in ... more Abstract: Ayatollah Khomeini and Ali Shariati are seen as twin pillars of revolutionary Islam in contemporary Iran. This article contextualizes and compares these radical dis-courses in three sections. It first problematizes the transformation of Khomeini as a quietist cleric into a revolutionary ayatollah. While Khomeini’s theory of velayat-e faqih was a radical departure from the dominant Shiite tradition, its practice has contributed to a new era of post-Khomeinism. Second, it examines Shariati’s discourse and a new reading of his thought in the post-revolutionary context. Third, it demonstrates that these discourses differ radically on the three concepts of radicalism, public religion, and state. The conclusion sheds some light on the conditions of Khomeinism after Khomeini, and Shariati’s discourse three decades after the revolution. It suggests that Iran has gra-dually entered into a new era of post-Islamism. Résume ́ : L’ayatollah Khomeiny et Ali Shariati sont considérés c...

cpsa-acsp.ca

In 1979 Islamic Revolution human agency triumphed over structural constraints to overthrow the Sh... more In 1979 Islamic Revolution human agency triumphed over structural constraints to overthrow the Shah's autocratic regime. But such a triumph was full of contradictions. The Revolution brought a new regime with a new constitution founded on the exceptionalism created by politics, ...

This paper examines the complex and dialectal interactions between structural and agential factor... more This paper examines the complex and dialectal interactions between structural and agential factors and how they help or hinder democratization in contemporary Iran. The paper provides an operational definition of structure and agency by subdividing each into three levels of analysis. The structural factors are measured by the nature of the Iranian state (political level), Iran’s uneven development (socio-economic level), and the global structure of power (international level). The agential factors, both in the reform and the counter-reform movement, are examined in terms of the leadership capability (individual level), the organizational arrangements (institutional level), and the intellectual discourse (cultural-ideological level). The findings suggest that Iran’s future prospects for democratization equally depend on the structural “causes ” and the socio-political “causers”. Iran’s process of democratization is surrounded by a number of international and domestic obstacles. These...

Arab Spring

The contemporary new social movements in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Iran's Green Mo... more The contemporary new social movements in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Iran's Green Movement, the Arab Spring, and Turkey's Gezi Park Movement, emerged in a post-Islamist condition and are characterized as post-Islamist movements. 1 These movements are, however, in deep crises and the MENA region is experiencing multidimensional predicaments.

This article is an attempt to problematize two faces of Westerncentrism, or two prime examples of... more This article is an attempt to problematize two faces of Westerncentrism, or two prime examples of the revival of old assertions regarding ‘the superiority of the West’ and the concomitant ‘inferiority of the Rest’: Francis Fukuyama’s The End History and Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations. These theses suggest that any resistance to Western neo-liberal values, institutions, and power is a mark of rage, irrationality, and backwardness and that the West is thus justified in globalizing its model of progress, vi et armis, if necessary. The world Huntington and Fukuyama envisioned for us is falling apart. This is the reality of Tahrir Square and Times Square among tens of other squares around the world. The dominant mode in the popular social movements throughout the world especially in Middle East and North Africa in 2011 is neither the End of History nor the Clash of Civilizations. People in the streets of the East and the West demand their humanity and dignity, their right...

Introduction The year 2005 is the hundredth anniversary of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethics and ... more Introduction The year 2005 is the hundredth anniversary of Max Weber's The Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism 1. In his work, Weber argued that material conditions such as structural, legal, and institutional factors were insufficient by themselves for development in Europe. The unique set of moral values associated with the Protestant ethics, he argued, were the cultural conditions most conducive to the spirit of capitalism in the West. 2 The thesis also put forward the possibility of treating culture in general, and religion in particular, as a cause of political phenomena, i.e., the contribution of the reformed religion to the rise of democracy. This year also Iranians celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Iran's Constitutional Revolution (enghelabe mashrouteh) in 1905-the first and foremost event in the modern history of Iran. In the Constitutional era some Iranian intellectuals, among the first generation of modern Iranian intelligentsia, called for an "Islamic Protestantism". 3 For this group of intellectuals, Protestantism was instrumental in challenging the hegemony of the institutionalized religion and the legitimacy of the clerical authority. The 'protestantization' of Islam, they argued, not only would cease the power of clergy over the masses, releasing people's potential for social change, but it also pushes both religion and religious public to come to terms with the possibilities and conditions of modernity. The goal, however, was not achieved. The second resurgence and revival of "Islamic Protestantism" took place in the 1960s. Dr. Ali Shariati, a lay progressive reformist intellectual educated in Sorbonne, took the initiative for a radical reform in Islamic thought in Iran. For Shariati, "Islamic Protestantism" was less about theological and more about social reforms. The core component of his argument was that if you want to liberate the religious public, you need first to liberate the religion itself. Nonetheless, Shariati's anticlericalism, ironically, served the clergy: in the midst of the 1979 revolutionary upheaval Shariati's message was lost. The rise of a post-revolutionary clerical regime, thanks to the strength of clerical institutions and the revolutionary charismatic leadership, served, not the spirit of "Islamic Protestantism," but the strength of Islamism. Two decades after the establishment of the Islamic Republic under the rule of clerical authority in Iran, the third and the most recent wave of "Islamic Protestantism" emerged. On 19 June 2002, in a controversial speech given at a commemoration of the 25 anniversary of the death of Ali Shariati in Tehran, Dr. Hashem Aghajari, a reformist college professor, th called for the necessity and the urgency of "Islamic Protestantism". As a result, he was first sentenced to death, but eventually imprisoned by the clerical 1

This paper problematizes the value and impact of social elements of democracy and democratization... more This paper problematizes the value and impact of social elements of democracy and democratization. In the first part, I will examine the limits of the liberal and republican paradigms of democracy; I will propose that two social elements of democracy – societal empowerment and social justice are central to the success and consolidation of a substantive democracy. I shall examine Jurgen Habermas‟s concept of “deliberative democracy” to explore the social aspects of democracy. In the second part, I will examine two major theoretical trends in the democratization literature: structural theories and the actor-centred theories. I will argue that a third alternative approach better acknowledges the social elements of democratization. This integrative approach keeps an equal distance from vulgar voluntarism and structural determinism; it successfully synthesizes dialectical relations between structure and agency, “causes” and “causers,” and social and political factors/actors. It underline...

This chapter suggests that the quest for a grassroots social democracy in Iran holds deep and div... more This chapter suggests that the quest for a grassroots social democracy in Iran holds deep and diverse socio-intellectual roots. It is as old as the 1906 Constitutional Revolution, and as broad as secular and religious socialists of Muslim, Marxist, and nationalist origins. It briefly examines the contribution of Mohammad Nakhshab, Khalil Maleki, and Ali Shari‘ati to a social approach to democracy. The chapter also problematizes the limits of liberal paradigm and highlights the merits of the twin pillars of a grassroots social democracy: social justice and societal empowerment. It examines what today’s Iran can learn from the global and local tradition of social democracy. It also sheds light on the possibility of a discourse building toward a grassroots social democracy in Iran.

Six years after the birth of contemporary social movements (Iran’s Green Movement in 2009 and the... more Six years after the birth of contemporary social movements (Iran’s Green Movement in 2009 and the 2011 Arab Spring) in the Middle East and North Africa (mena), the region is caught between a number of rocks and many hard places. The interaction of the global power structure and the local socio-political conditions repressed the revolutionary spirit in mena. The “Quiet Encroachment” of counterrevolutionary forces has largely replaced hope with despair, and excitement with resentment (Bayat 2013a; 2015). The rise of isil/isis in Iraq and Syria, the predicament of Islamism in power and the subsequent return of a military junta in Egypt, the breakout of proxy/civil war in Syria and Yemen, the suppression of Iran’s prodemocracy movement, and the chaos and collapse of the Libyan polity have contributed to the revival of an old discourse of “Middle East Exceptionalism,” meaning the Middle East is exceptionally immune to democratic movements, values and institutions. This special issue is a...