We Deserve Better”

Ideologies of Deservingness and Status in the Interpretation of Chinese Goods in an Iranian Bazaar

Bibliographic Data

ID9977985
AuthorsSimon Theobald (0000-0002-4670-2089, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume53
Issue5-6
Pages947-961
Publication date2020-03-02
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueIranian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-0862 • E-ISSN: 1475-4819
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1080/00210862.2020.1723408
OpenAlexW3010218793
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited32

This article argues that even as Chinese imports occupy an increasingly large percentage of the space in Mashhad’s bazaars and marketplaces, such goods are interpreted not only as being of poor quality but, critically, as insufficiently “worthy” of the Iranian middle class who positioned themselves as “deserving better.” In attempting to assess why this is the case, the article suggests that such framing both reveals much of, and requires us to consider, the pivotal role of status in Iran. It holds that this concern for status is expressed at multiple levels: that of the family, as a class, and finally, of the nation. At each of these levels of expression, it is possible to trace different post-revolutionary social phenomena. These include the reification of the family as a moral unit, major shifts in the demographics of education and urbanization, the rise of a consumer culture and the perilous decline of the fortunes of the middle class, and, finally, imaginings of national exceptionalism. This article then uses such readings of Chinese goods as a window into middle class ideologies of worth and deservingness

Bazaar · Framing (construction · Ideology · Middle class · Political economy · Political science · Social class · Sociology · History · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Turkey's Politics and Society

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