Student movement and political othering,
How did students in the final decade of the second Pahlavi dynasty use the polarization of the university environment as a tool to fight the regime?
Assistant Professor of Imam Khomeini and Islamic Revolution Research Institute, Tehran, Iran
10.22084/csr.2025.28897.2265
Abstract
Drawing the border between friend and enemy, insider and outsider is one of the mechanisms for building collective identities and group and national cohesion. In many cases, this is the sovereign of a political order that has the possibility and authority to draw such boundaries with a self-founded decision. In a revolutionary situation, the protesting people do not consider such legitimacy for the sovereign and seek to draw a border that considers him as "them" and the people as "us". Therefore, in the years leading up to the revolution, a bipolar atmosphere always dominates the society, which forms an important part of the political culture of the protesters. This article, by using the theories of Carl Schmidt and documentary method and studying researches, interviews and related documents, seeks to answer the question of how the students of Tehran during the reign of Pahlavi II fueled political otherizing and how they organized the university environment based on the political dichotomies between students and the established political regime. The findings show that the translation of union affairs into political affairs had an effective role in building, stabilizing and reproducing this bipolarity. The blurring of the boundaries of trade union and political matter caused ambiguity of the cause of protest and dissatisfaction, and this ambiguity aggravated the politicization of the university environment. Due to this kind of intensification of conflicts and political tensions, any action that showed the slightest connection with the established regime or the officials was interpreted as compromise or betrayal.
Khorshidnam, A. (2025). Student movement and political othering,
How did students in the final decade of the second Pahlavi dynasty use the polarization of the university environment as a tool to fight the regime?. Two Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Sociological Research, (), -. doi: 10.22084/csr.2025.28897.2265
MLA
Khorshidnam, A. . "Student movement and political othering,
How did students in the final decade of the second Pahlavi dynasty use the polarization of the university environment as a tool to fight the regime?", Two Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Sociological Research, , , 2025, -. doi: 10.22084/csr.2025.28897.2265
HARVARD
Khorshidnam, A. (2025). 'Student movement and political othering,
How did students in the final decade of the second Pahlavi dynasty use the polarization of the university environment as a tool to fight the regime?', Two Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Sociological Research, (), pp. -. doi: 10.22084/csr.2025.28897.2265
CHICAGO
A. Khorshidnam, "Student movement and political othering,
How did students in the final decade of the second Pahlavi dynasty use the polarization of the university environment as a tool to fight the regime?," Two Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Sociological Research, (2025): -, doi: 10.22084/csr.2025.28897.2265
VANCOUVER
Khorshidnam, A. Student movement and political othering,
How did students in the final decade of the second Pahlavi dynasty use the polarization of the university environment as a tool to fight the regime?. Two Quarterly Journal of Contemporary Sociological Research, 2025; (): -. doi: 10.22084/csr.2025.28897.2265
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