The Overt Plunder: Peripheralization, Dispossession, and Precarious Living

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

2 Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics, Alzahra University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Cultural Studies, Institute for Social and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

With the emergence and formation of modern nation-states and the ideology of archaic nationalism, a framework that fostered intra-social and national othering based on ethnic, religious, and linguistic identity prevailed for several decades. This resulted in the establishment of an ideological lifeworld in Iran, characterized by subordination, peripheralization, and othering. This article addresses the question of what mechanisms generate and reproduce the subordination of informal labor forces by focusing on the lifeworld of the subordinates, specifically informal labor forces on the periphery. Furthermore, which resistance strategies do the subordinates implement? In other words, the objective of this investigation is to examine the logic of the dominant forces in the city of Sanandaj and its suburbs using an ethnographic approach. The people of Sanandaj have been subjected to mechanisms that have resulted in their subordination, which has forced a substantial portion of the population to engage in informal economies and labor, thereby forcing them to exit the sphere of normal life.
The city of Sanandaj serves as the research site. This research employs ethnographic methodologies and employs a qualitative approach. In ethnographic fieldwork, the researcher interacts directly with the field or environment. Field research techniques, such as observations, interviews, participation or immersion in daily life, and library studies, were employed to collect data.
Our conceptual framework is founded on the theories of Asef Bayat, Michel Foucault, Mbembe, and Standing. This study demonstrates that the mechanism of subordination through pervasive dispossession, which is implemented through historical, economic, and social policies and programs, exacerbates peripheralization, subordination, and precarious living conditions for citizens. Moreover, it reveals that resistance strategies, including street occupations, nationalist identity pursuits, and sectarianism, are developed in response to these subordinating mechanisms. It demonstrates that although the history of Sanandaj is inextricably linked with economic, social, and political policies in a historical experience characterized by othering, peripheralization, and exclusion, which culminated in the extensive plunder of local resources and the dispossession of citizens’ rights and livelihoods, resulting in a substantial population being relegated to the ranks of the subordinates, this narrative has consistently generated parallel worlds in opposition to this systematic historical plunder.
It is imperative to acknowledge that these parallel worlds, which have been established in response to historical pillage and dispossession, have not functioned as a means of evading subordination and victimization

Keywords

References

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Quarterly of Social Studies and Research in Iran
Volume 13, Issue 3 - Serial Number 52
September 2024
Pages 329-344

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