In a public lecture hosted by CMDS on January 22, Kevan Harris, Associate Director of Princeton University's Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, offered a fresh perspective on modern Iranian politics using field theory. The theory, which is rooted in works by authors such as Pierre Bourdieu, Neil Fligstein, and Doug McAdam, focuses on the importance of fields as “constructed social arenas in which collective and individual actors with varying resources vie for advantage.”
Harris explained that by using field theory, he was able to overcome some of the many shortcomings of traditional views of the Middle East that rely on abstract notions of power and resistance in state-societal relations.
Read the full article on the Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS) website.