Between Politics and Profits: Private Sociology Classes in Iran

This paper examines privatization of Iranian sociology in the 21st century by studying changes that have happened in teaching in the past two decades. The teaching of sociology in Iran has for a long time been constrained by political considerations and censorship as well as hiring policies that prioritize ideological over academic qualifications. Yet, beginning in the early twenty-first century, student associations began to react to the diminishing quality of their classroom education through collective protests and by organizing reading groups and book clubs that went above and beyond the official curriculum. Over time, these extra-curricular classes morphed into private classes outside the university run by academic sociologists and intellectual figures who charge students for membership and participation. Thus, private, for-profit reading groups emerge, where sociology texts and methods are taught and discussed. This paper presents the results of a multi-methods study of this phenomenon, focusing on how the politicization of sociology has made university teaching contentious and whether these classes provide an alternative outlet. We also discuss the wider global trends of Neo-liberalism and micro-credentialism which introduce private profit motivations into sociological teaching.