Rewriting the History of Sociological Imagination in Iran

The official history of sociology in Iran backs to 1950's, when the academic discipline of sociology established at University of Tehran. On the other hand, we can find those before this date who speak “in the name of society” for the first time in Iran. These reformists, physicians and doctors, novelists and fiction writers, travellers and revolutionaries mainly tried to change society in a practical way and for this reason; they introduced the best forms of governance. So, they started to speak about social phenomenon to analyse the market, poverty, cultural lag, despotism and power. In this sense, they were the first ones to link individual issues to social and historical context and shaped the sociological imagination. In this new field of knowledge, they cited some practices and areas in which the Social would be highlighted and the linked to the idea of governance, from simple practices like eating to taxpaying and ethical practices. Thus, in the late nineteenth century, Iran was a social laboratory for a group of thinkers who - though sometimes were in a dialogue with the West – used modern sciences vocabulary to take a fresh look at their own society and explain their point of view. So, they established a form of pre-sociology approach to analyse different aspects of Iranian social life based on a historical background. Furthermore, reorganization of state’s power in a global framework of governance led to shape the modern state that was interested in and dealt with issues of territory and population. As a result, this emphasized on role of people and society. Analysing texts from 1900-1930, this paper shows the ways that pre-sociologists in Iran linked individual issues to a broader socio-historical basis. These analytical texts along with population and geographical statistics lead us to a new origin of sociological imagination which has shaped non-official and non-academic sociological thoughts in Iran.