Problematic of Hope and Hopelessness Among Youth in the Context of Iranian Society: Study of Tabriz City

نویسندگان

Department of Social Science, Faculty of Social Science and Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

چکیده

Hope and hopelessness are reflections of an individual's consciousness and understanding of society and the way they interact with the social order, not a mere emotional understanding. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the problematic nature of hope and hopelessness to recognize the conditions that cause hopelessness and prevent the realization of youth's hope, their lived experiences, and the interpretations they make of their situation.
Qualitative research and data were collected by the purposive sampling method, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 youth from Tabriz city to gather data, which were then analyzed using thematic analysis techniques.
The results indicate that the live experience of youth of hope and hopelessness is influenced by conditions such as living in the shadow of economic instability, living with political adversity, and the lack of subjectivity. The youth's strategy to avoid hopelessness and achieve hope is pragmatic-critical activism: individual activism, confrontational compromise, and migration. They seek to create and reconstruct possible alternatives and give meaning to their lives by adopting this activism according to the real and practical conditions of life and in opposition to structural constraints. Hope, and even for some, hopelessness, is seen as a feasibility for activism in confronting social, political, and economic inequalities and the unfair distribution of opportunities and life chances.
Therefore, policymakers must expand opportunities for youth agency and reduce structural limitations, as well as develop strategies to strengthen and facilitate these conditions and encourage their participation in the process of social meaning-making.

کلیدواژه‌ها

عنوان مقاله [English]

Problematic of Hope and Hopelessness Among Youth in the Context of Iranian Society: Study of Tabriz City

نویسندگان [English]

  • Fatemeh Mohammadzadeh
  • ُSusan Bastani
  • Mansoureh Azam Azadeh
Department of Social Science, Faculty of Social Science and Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran
چکیده [English]

Hope and hopelessness are reflections of an individual's consciousness and understanding of society and the way they interact with the social order, not a mere emotional understanding. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the problematic nature of hope and hopelessness to recognize the conditions that cause hopelessness and prevent the realization of youth's hope, their lived experiences, and the interpretations they make of their situation.
Qualitative research and data were collected by the purposive sampling method, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 26 youth from Tabriz city to gather data, which were then analyzed using thematic analysis techniques.
The results indicate that the live experience of youth of hope and hopelessness is influenced by conditions such as living in the shadow of economic instability, living with political adversity, and the lack of subjectivity. The youth's strategy to avoid hopelessness and achieve hope is pragmatic-critical activism: individual activism, confrontational compromise, and migration. They seek to create and reconstruct possible alternatives and give meaning to their lives by adopting this activism according to the real and practical conditions of life and in opposition to structural constraints. Hope, and even for some, hopelessness, is seen as a feasibility for activism in confronting social, political, and economic inequalities and the unfair distribution of opportunities and life chances.
Therefore, policymakers must expand opportunities for youth agency and reduce structural limitations, as well as develop strategies to strengthen and facilitate these conditions and encourage their participation in the process of social meaning-making.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Activism
  • Hope
  • Hopelessness
  • Iran
  • Subjectivity: Structure
  • Tabriz
  • Youth

مراجع

Aghazadeh, M. (2017). Unbalanced life. The newspaper of trust, 4248: 13.
Alikhah, F. (2022). The social inadmissibility of a generation that does not listen. New Awareness, 9: 162-163. https://www.avangard.ir
Amiriasfarjani, Z. (2019). A mixed research In the sociological interpretion and explanation of social hope and practical commitment to democratic values among the citizens of Isfahan. Ph.D Thesis, University of Isfahan Faculty of Educational and Psychology Department of Educational Sciences. (In Percian)
Amirpanahi, M., Malmir, M., &Shokriyani, M. (2016), The Status of Social Hope in Iran (Secondary Analysis of Social, Cultural and Moral Surveys). Social Work Research, 3(9), 79-106.
https://doi.org/10.22054/rjsw.2016.9257
An analysis of the Iranian economic conditions, looking at the results of the Global Risks Report. (2022). OtaghIran Research Center. https://otaghiranonline.ir/UFiles/Docs/2022/7/25/Doc20220725102856256 (In Percian)
Bergdahl, L., Langmann, E. (2021). Pedagogical publics: Creating sustainable educational environments in times of climate change. European Educational Research, 21, (3), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1177/14749041211005618
Bishop, E. C., Willis, K. (2014). Without Hope Everything Would Be Doom and Gloom: Young People Talk About the Importance of Hope in Their Lives. Youth Studies, 17, (6), 778–793.
https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.878788
Bolland, M. (2003). Hopelessness and risk behavior among adolescents living in high-poverty inner-city neighborhoods, Adolescence, 26, 145–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-1971(02)00136-7
Braun, V., Clarke, V. (2006). Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3 (2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Castells. M. (2014). Networks of Outrage and Hope. Translated by: M. Gholipour. Tehran: Markaz
Farastkhah, M. (2017). Iranians are a hopeful nation but without social hope. Morvarid Magazine, 6(7), 27-30
Fazeli, N. (2019). An Introduction to Understanding Social Hope in Contemporary Iran. Philology of Notes of an Ethnographer. https://farhangshenasi.ir
Fromm. E. (2004), The Revolution of Hope: Toward a Humanized Technology. Translated by: M. Roshanfekr. Third edition, Tehran: Morvarid.
Ghaffari, G. (2024). The Dilemma of Social Trust and the Challenge of Governance in Contemporary Iran. Social Studies and Research in Iran, 13(4), 469-494. https://doi: 10.22059/jisr.2024.386485.1563  
Ghanei-Rad, M. A. (2013). Sociological Hope Against Utopian and Satisfactory Attitudes, Iranian Sociological Association. 57, 2-3 .
Ghanei-Rad, M. A. (2019). Social Hope as a Collective Conscience. in social hope, the nature, status and etiology. Tehran: Research Institute of Cultural and Social Studies in Cooperation with Rahman Institute .
Gibson, Lorena. (2011). Hope, Agency, and the ‘Side Effects’ of Development in India and Papua New Guinea. Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology at Massey University. Manawatu Campus, New Zealand.
Gili, G. Mangone, E. (2025), Is a Sociology of Hope Possible? An Attempt to Recompose a Theoretical Framework and a Research Programme. The American Sociologist. 54 (1):7-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-022-09539-y
Gili, G. Mangone, E. (2025), Towards a Sociology of Hope Looking Beyond. Londan: Routledge Press.
Greco, S. (2022). Hope in the Sociological Thoughts of some Founding Fathers. the American Sociologist, 54, 56–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-022-09555-y
Hage, G. (2003). Against Paranoid Nationalism Searching for hope in a shrinking society. Australia: Pluto Press.
Hage, G., Papadopoulos, D. (2004). Ghassan Hage In Conversation with Dimitris Papadopoulos: Migration Hope and The Making of Subjectivity in Transnational Capitalism. International Journal for Critical Psychology, 12, 95–117. https://doi.org/10.1080/02757206.2016.1207636
Inglehart. R. (2016). Culture Shift in Advanced Industrial Society. Translated by: M. Vetr. Third edition, Tehran: Kavir (In Percian)
Iran Migration outlook. (2021). Iran Migration Data Portal. https://imobs.ir
Iran Population and Housing Census. (2016) (In Percian)
Javadi Yeganeh, M. R. (2022). Changes in the lifestyle and temperament of young people, in: Youth and Youth in Iran. A group of authors. Tehran: Parse Publishing House in cooperation with Rahman Institute
Karami. S. (2023). Sociological Analysis of the Social Hope: A Comparative Survey on the Students of Universities oh Tehran and Vienna. Master Degree of Arta in Sociology, Tarbiat Modares University
Keshavarz, K. (2023). Hope and despair in the Iranian society: A case study of students of universities in Tehran. Journal of Iranian Cultural Research, 16(3), 93-120. https://doi: 10.22035/jicr.2023.3168.3472
Keshoofy, A. (2022). Predictors of Hope and Hopelessness in Post-Secondary Students, for the degree of Masters of Science in Population Medicine, University of Guelph, Canada.
Khanik, H. (2019). Social hope, the nature, status and etiology. Tehran: Research Institute of Cultural and social studies in cooperation with Rahman Institute
Khosravi, S. (2017). PRECARIOUS LIVES: Waiting and Hope in Iran.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania.
Lueck, M. A. M. (2007). Hope for a cause as cause for hope: The need for hope in environmental sociology. The American Sociologist, 3, 250-261. https://doi.10.1007/s12108-007-9017-7
Lyon, D. (2017), Bauman’s Sociology of Hope. Cultural Politics, 13(3), 296-299. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-4211266
مطالعات و تحقیقات اجتماعی در ایران
دوره 14، شماره 4
Volume 14, Issue 4. Articles in English
دی 1404
صفحه 663-689

فایل ها

هم رسانی

ارجاع به این مقاله

آمار