Iranian Youth Resilience in Economic Precariousness

نویسنده

Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran

چکیده

Economic precariousness, as a key structural characteristic of Iran’s economy in recent decades, has had widespread effects on the labor market and the life practices of young people. In this context, resilience can be analyzed as a cultural-social mechanism for confronting unstable conditions—rather than merely a return to a prior state. This study aims to identify the components of the discourse of resilience among Iranian youth facing precarious employment and to analyze how these components are represented in experiential narratives.
The research follows a qualitative design and employs Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis. Data were collected through 20 semi-structured interviews with students who are employed or seeking work in Tehran and were analyzed thematically.
Findings indicate that resilience is represented through four major discursive components: “a shared understanding of labor market dysfunction,” “internalization of instability and acceptance of hardship,” “micro-resistance and innovation,” and “meaning reconstruction through humorous engagement.” These components are interpreted using approaches from critical sociological theories, including Bourdieu’s habitus and symbolic capital, Foucault’s governmentality and subjectivity, James C. Scott’s notion of everyday resistance, Asef Bayat’s concept of viable action, and Butler’s reconceptualization of agency within vulnerability.
The results suggest that the discourse of resilience under conditions of economic precariousness, while internalizing existing circumstances, also enables the creation of meaning and micro-scale agencies; rather than being a passive coping mechanism, resilience becomes a mode of living within crisis.

کلیدواژه‌ها

عنوان مقاله [English]

Iranian Youth Resilience in Economic Precariousness

نویسنده [English]

  • Leila Alavi
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Imam Khomeini International University, Qazvin, Iran
چکیده [English]

Economic precariousness, as a key structural characteristic of Iran’s economy in recent decades, has had widespread effects on the labor market and the life practices of young people. In this context, resilience can be analyzed as a cultural-social mechanism for confronting unstable conditions—rather than merely a return to a prior state. This study aims to identify the components of the discourse of resilience among Iranian youth facing precarious employment and to analyze how these components are represented in experiential narratives.
The research follows a qualitative design and employs Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model of Critical Discourse Analysis. Data were collected through 20 semi-structured interviews with students who are employed or seeking work in Tehran and were analyzed thematically.
Findings indicate that resilience is represented through four major discursive components: “a shared understanding of labor market dysfunction,” “internalization of instability and acceptance of hardship,” “micro-resistance and innovation,” and “meaning reconstruction through humorous engagement.” These components are interpreted using approaches from critical sociological theories, including Bourdieu’s habitus and symbolic capital, Foucault’s governmentality and subjectivity, James C. Scott’s notion of everyday resistance, Asef Bayat’s concept of viable action, and Butler’s reconceptualization of agency within vulnerability.
The results suggest that the discourse of resilience under conditions of economic precariousness, while internalizing existing circumstances, also enables the creation of meaning and micro-scale agencies; rather than being a passive coping mechanism, resilience becomes a mode of living within crisis.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Critical Discourse Analysis
  • Economic Precariousness
  • Everyday Resistance
  • Iranian youth
  • Resilience

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مطالعات و تحقیقات اجتماعی در ایران
دوره 14، شماره 4
Volume 14, Issue 4. Articles in English
دی 1404
صفحه 579-600

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