Power, Legitimacy and the Public Sphere

Amin Sharifi Isaloo is a lecturer and tutor in the Department of Sociology at University College Cork, Ireland.

• List of Figures Preface Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1: Proposing democracy in Iran: The empty place of power and the public sphere Chapter 2: Ta’ziyeh origins, dimensions, and its power in forming the public sphere Chapter 3: Ta’ziyeh and the public sphere during the 1979 Revolution Chapter 4: Ta’ziyeh and the public sphere during the Iran-Iraq War Chapter 5: Ta’ziyeh and the public sphere during the 2009 Green Movement Conclusion Glossary Index

‘This book provides a novel reading of key political events that marked Iranian political history from the Islamic Revolution until today. However, the book does much more than that: it introduces a series of novel insights and conceptual approaches that invites wider reflection on the theatrical nature of the public sphere and the problematic role of ritual and images in the ‘management’ of political transition. The book deserves a wide readership in both area studies and social, political and cultural theory.’ - Bjørn Thomassen, Roskilde University, Denmark'Power, Legitimacy and the Public Sphere is a remarkable study of performative practice and political transformation in a non-Western context. Amin Sharifi Isaloo provides an interdisciplinary and original account of Shia Islamic rituals of Ta’ziyeh, as a symbolic milieu of collective action, and the public sphere in redefining the political in complex ways. This is an important book for those interested in ritual studies, the sociology of culture and collective action.' - Babak Rahimi, UC San Diego, USA