نوع مقاله : علمی-پژوهشی
عنوان مقاله English
نویسنده English
Introduction
Middle class in Iran has been considered as a controversial issue so that it has been described with quite different labels by social scientists. While some intellectuals reckon that it is the engine of development and modernization in Iran, others contemplate that it is a passive, egoistic, and consumer class. At that point, doing research about the distinctive Characteristics of middle class members' life style and their various capitals can be a significant issue. As I carry out my research thanks to Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical perspective on social class and lifestyle, describing and analyzing economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capitals of middle class members will be a useful and practical purpose.
This research aims at describing and analyzing different qualities of middle class members’ lifestyle in 80s and 90s in Tehran and recognizing various aspects of their lifestyle evolutions. The main questions of the present article are: what were the features of middle class members' lifestyle and their evolutions in 80s and 90s in Tehran? What were the main elements which leaded to the evolutions of middle class members' lifestyle in 80s and 90s in Tehran?
Materials & Methods
To carry out my research and collect data I used life history and focus group methods. In this way, I interviewed 10 middle class members using life history and 5 middle class members using focus group. All interviews were semi-structured interviews. Samples were selected with the help of theoretical sampling, and the number of interviews was determined based on reaching to theoretical saturation. Furthermore, data was analyzed and interpreted with the help of the qualitative content analysis method. In such a way, I coded data and recognized main concepts and categories to find some specific patterns.
Discussion & Result
Based on the data which is extracted from interviews with middle class members, it is possible to recognize main categories and find patterns. Thus, it can be said that the main categories of the present research include: going to café and restaurant, buying clothes, travelling domestically and abroad, studying book and journals, watching TV, surfing the Internet, going to cinema, theater, and concert, listening to music, watching film and series at home, membership in groups, having friendship and family relationships, participating in different rituals, social status and prestige, income, ownership, and purchasing power, education, gender, age, marital status, and childbearing.
The findings of the present investigation indicate that middle class members were going to café, restaurant, cinema, theater and concert in 80s and early 90s more than in late 90s. In the same way, middle class members were buying clothes, traveling to domestic and foreign destinations, studying books and journals, watching TV, film and series, and listening to music in 80s and early 90s more than in late 90s. The same pattern can be seen about membership in groups, having friendship and family relationships, and participating in different rituals. In other words, interviewees in 80s and early 90s were attending in distinctive groups and rituals and were visiting their friends and family members more than in late 90s. In such a way, the interviews with middle class members demonstrate that these individuals had the higher level of social status and prestige and purchasing power in 80s and early 90s in comparison to the level of their social status and purchasing power in late 90s.
Conclusion
Thanks to the four kinds of capital which is recognized by Pierre Bourdieu, it can be possible to analyze the social trajectory of middle class members with regard to the evolution of their economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capitals in 80s and 90s. Then, it sounds that while the above-mentioned capitals of interviewees were increased in 80s and early 90s, the middle class interviewees encountered the declining trend in the amount of their capitals in 90s.
Generally speaking, each of the interviewees based on their distinctive habitus and their achieved capitals have occupied different positions in the fields of social class and power. They experienced a growing path in the fields of social class and power in 80s whereas they lost their older statuses and dropped to the lower positions in 90s.
Taking into account the reasons of interviewees’ lifestyle and capitals evolutions in 80s and 90s, most of them mentioned the evolution of economic and financial indexes, changing the social and cultural atmosphere, immigration and death of relatives and friends, Corona virus pandemic, getting marriage, childbearing, and getting older.
Based on the most of interviewees’ perspective, inflation and decrease in purchasing power can mainly explain the reduction of going to café, restaurant, cinema, theater, and concert, buying clothes, travelling, visiting relatives and friends, and participating in social rituals between middle class members in 90s. Moreover, in their viewpoint, immigration, death of relatives and friends, and Corona virus pandemic considerably reduced family and friendly relationships between middle class members in 90s.
کلیدواژهها English