Millenial Iran : political disenchantment, post-network society and commodity culture

This dissertation contributes to the field of modern Iranian sociocultural history. It engages in the historical analysis of the intersection of Iranian youth culture and media studies, presenting the implications of a Post-Network society in the context of contemporary Iran. Existing scholarship on youth culture as it manifests in Post-Reform Iran is heavily dominated by works that privilege resistance in their investigation. I, however, argue for a class-based reading of the subject, in which socioeconomic aspirations prevail over the intention of resistance in the characterization of Iran’s Millenial Generation. While the Reform Movement and Mohammad Khatami’s election served to render the post-Revolution generation as a legitimate political force, the Reformist President’s impotence to champion the demands of his youthful constituents throughout his presidential tenure triggered a pervasive sense of disillusionment among the Third Generation. The subsequent political inaction that it inspired arguably abetted the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and initiated the Post-Reform Era, which coincided with the Post-Network Era in media worldwide. During this time, the penetration of convenience technologies significantly impacted the formation of Iranian youth culture. As Iranian Millenials became increasingly dependent on mobile Internet technology, they created a new media environment that helped precipitate the emergence of a commodity culture. This commodity culture, along with the arrival and adaptation of Post-Network technologies, has led to the prevalence of certain trends among young urban Iranians. These trends serve as markers of socioeconomic class in today’s Iran, and are used by Iranian Millenials as a type of social currency to signify and validate their identification with their preferred class group. Ultimately, the adaptation of Post-Network media practices, the pronounced political disenchantment of the Ahmadinejad era, and the neoliberal economic policies touted by the Islamic Republic since the early 1990s, have all combined to create a society in which class identity has become a definitive feature of Millenial Iran.