‘The Importance of being Civil Society’: Student Politics and the Reformist Movement in Khatami's Iran
Rivetti, PaolaORCID: 0000-0002-1794-0504 and Cavatorta, FrancescoORCID: 0000-0003-2249-1392
(2013)
‘The Importance of being Civil Society’: Student Politics and the Reformist Movement in Khatami's Iran.
Middle Eastern Studies, 49
(4).
pp. 645-660.
ISSN 0026-3206
Through a non-conventional understanding of civil society activism, the article provides an
explanation of the relationship between the student movement and Khatami’s governments in Iran.
This study approaches ‘civil society’ as a space where we may observe the dynamics and the exercise of
power. The case study of the interactions between the Daftar-e Tahkim-e Vahdat and Khatami’s
governments illustrates how civil society is not a fixed concept, but a contested one. By analysing the
conflicts and interactions between these two actors, the article examines the continuous negotiations
that reinvent the meaning of civil society and produce political inclusion or exclusion.