Ali Kadivar's guest appearances

Ali Kadivar

POMEPS Middle East Political Science Podcast

Story in the Public Square

Democracy Paradox

OwlTail

Since the fall of 2022, the women of Iran have confronted the authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran after one young woman died in the state’s custody. Ali Kadivar views the advocacy of those brave women through the broader struggle for democracy around the world. Kadivar is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Boston College.  He also directs the Middle East Popular Politics Lab at Boston College, which focuses on collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data on various instances of contentious mobilization such as revolutions, wars, civil wars, anti-regime protests, and pro-regime mobilization globally, in the Middle East, and particularly in Iran.  Kadivar’s work contributes to political and comparative-historical sociology by exploring the interaction between protest movements and democratization and draws on his experience as a participant-observer of the pro-democracy movement in Iran, but his research agenda moves outward from this case to explore these issues on a global scale, using case studies, comparative-historical methods, and statistical analyses.  His research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Comparative Politics, Socius, and Mobilization, and has won awards from the Collective Behavior and Social Movement (CBSM), Comparative Historical Sociology, Global and Transnational Sociology, Sociology of Development, and Peace, War and Social Conflict sections of the American Sociological Association (ASA).  His new book is “Popular Politics and the Path to Durable Democracy,” from Princeton University Press.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since the fall of 2022, the women of Iran have confronted the authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran after one young woman died in the state’s custody. Ali Kadivar views the advocacy of those brave women through the broader struggle for democracy around the world. Kadivar is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies at Boston College.  He also directs the Middle East Popular Politics Lab at Boston College, which focuses on collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data on various instances of contentious mobilization such as revolutions, wars, civil wars, anti-regime protests, and pro-regime mobilization globally, in the Middle East, and particularly in Iran.  Kadivar’s work contributes to political and comparative-historical sociology by exploring the interaction between protest movements and democratization and draws on his experience as a participant-observer of the pro-democracy movement in Iran, but his research agenda moves outward from this case to explore these issues on a global scale, using case studies, comparative-historical methods, and statistical analyses.  His research has been published in the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, Comparative Politics, Socius, and Mobilization, and has won awards from the Collective Behavior and Social Movement (CBSM), Comparative Historical Sociology, Global and Transnational Sociology, Sociology of Development, and Peace, War and Social Conflict sections of the American Sociological Association (ASA).  His new book is “Popular Politics and the Path to Durable Democracy,” from Princeton University Press.See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

Ali Kadivar on Iran’s Continued Protests

M. Ali Kadivar

Personal conviction and democratic activism often go hand-in-hand.  Mohammed Ali Kadivar is both a scholar of democracy and an advocate whose family has long been vocal proponents of it.  Kadivar is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies and director of the Middle East Popular Politics Lab at Boston College.  The Middle East Popular Politics Lab focuses on collecting and analyzing data on various instances of contentious mobilization such as revolutions, wars, civil wars, anti-regime protests, and pro-regime mobilization globally, in the Middle East, and particularly in Iran.  His work contributes to political and comparative-historical sociology by exploring the interaction between protest movements and democratization.  Kadivar draws from his experience as a participant-observer of the pro-democracy movement in Iran, and his research agenda explores these issues on a global scale, using case studies, comparative-historical methods, and statistical analyses.  He earned a doctorate in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in political science from University of Tehran in Iran.  His research has been published in the American Sociological Review, among many other publications.  His work has received awards from the Comparative Historical Sociology, Global and Transnational Sociology, Sociology of Development, and Peace, War and Social Conflict sections of the American Sociological Association.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Personal conviction and democratic activism often go hand-in-hand.  Mohammed Ali Kadivar is both a scholar of democracy and an advocate whose family has long been vocal proponents of it.  Kadivar is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Studies and director of the Middle East Popular Politics Lab at Boston College.  The Middle East Popular Politics Lab focuses on collecting and analyzing data on various instances of contentious mobilization such as revolutions, wars, civil wars, anti-regime protests, and pro-regime mobilization globally, in the Middle East, and particularly in Iran.  His work contributes to political and comparative-historical sociology by exploring the interaction between protest movements and democratization.  Kadivar draws from his experience as a participant-observer of the pro-democracy movement in Iran, and his research agenda explores these issues on a global scale, using case studies, comparative-historical methods, and statistical analyses.  He earned a doctorate in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in political science from University of Tehran in Iran.  His research has been published in the American Sociological Review, among many other publications.  His work has received awards from the Comparative Historical Sociology, Global and Transnational Sociology, Sociology of Development, and Peace, War and Social Conflict sections of the American Sociological Association.See <a href="https://omnystudio.com/listener" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">omnystudio.com/listener</a> for privacy information.

Championing Democracy though Study and Activism with M. Ali Kadivar

Iran holds presidential elections later this week, and Marc Lynch talks with M. Ali Kadivar about what to expect. Kadivar is a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute."Ahmadinejad's era was significant for several reasons, but one reason was that the process started to replace the old guard of the Islamic Republic with a new set of elites," said Kadivar. "I think Rouhani represents the different strands: one is the old guard again, being back and exerting control. The other is the social support that Rouhani has. A lot of the reformist people who ruled for democratic change now see Rouhani as the most viable candidate that can push forward their agenda.""An interesting thing about the conservative candidates is that you see the conservative discourse is very weak in their electoral platforms. They don't talk about Islamic values or the Western invasion the culture of Iran. Most of what they're talking is the economic promises," said Kadivar. "In a way, I can see this election as kind of a defeat for conservative discourse. I think they have realized that to win a presidential election they cannot talk about those things."The conservative candidates will "criticize Rouhani for not being able to translate the nuclear agreement to economic gains for peace," said Kadivar. "So they say, 'We gave up on our rights. But people are not seeing that in their daily life. They don't have jobs.""On the other hand, Rouhani is saying, 'I'm the person who has delivered on promises. I promised to do this. I delivered this. We have been able to sell our oil, a barrier for banking has been removed,' and then he's promising to deliver more.""Many people believe that this presidential election is not just about presidents. So Iran's supreme leader is elderly and, I think, he wants to publicly recognize that he may not live longer so people are thinking and talking about his next successor. Ebrahim Raisi is being talked about as the hardliners' candidate for Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini... many people believe that he ran for president to set the stage for being Iran's next supreme leader."

Iran holds presidential elections later this week, and Marc Lynch talks with M. Ali Kadivar about what to expect. Kadivar is a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University's Watson Institute. "Ahmadinejad's era was significant for several reasons, but one reason was that the process started to replace the old guard of the Islamic Republic with a new set of elites," said Kadivar. "I think Rouhani represents the different strands: one is the old guard again, being back and exerting control. The other is the social support that Rouhani has. A lot of the reformist people who ruled for democratic change now see Rouhani as the most viable candidate that can push forward their agenda." "An interesting thing about the conservative candidates is that you see the conservative discourse is very weak in their electoral platforms. They don't talk about Islamic values or the Western invasion the culture of Iran. Most of what they're talking is the economic promises," said Kadivar. "In a way, I can see this election as kind of a defeat for conservative discourse. I think they have realized that to win a presidential election they cannot talk about those things." The conservative candidates will "criticize Rouhani for not being able to translate the nuclear agreement to economic gains for peace," said Kadivar. "So they say, 'We gave up on our rights. But people are not seeing that in their daily life. They don't have jobs." "On the other hand, Rouhani is saying, 'I'm the person who has delivered on promises. I promised to do this. I delivered this. We have been able to sell our oil, a barrier for banking has been removed,' and then he's promising to deliver more." "Many people believe that this presidential election is not just about presidents. So Iran's supreme leader is elderly and, I think, he wants to publicly recognize that he may not live longer so people are thinking and talking about his next successor. Ebrahim Raisi is being talked about as the hardliners' candidate for Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khomeini... many people believe that he ran for president to set the stage for being Iran's next supreme leader."