Natiosociology: Unraveling the nationalist epistemology in Iranian sociology

Abstract

Abstract

This article examines the development and trajectory of Iranian sociology, highlighting its entanglement with abstraction, domination, and the erasure of difference. Imported as a discipline, Iranian sociology has historically followed a Eurocentric model of knowledge and domination, framing the realities of non-sovereign identities in Iran through a metropolitan lens, thereby marginalizing peripheral identities. The analysis identifies three interrelated forms of abstraction—historical, patriotic, and discursive—that obscure social difference while legitimizing centralized power and nationalist narratives. Historical abstraction, informed by colonial legacies and evolutionary paradigms, sustains social hierarchies; patriotic abstraction emerges in state-sanctioned scholarship, which privileges a homogenized national narrative over plural social realities; and discursive abstraction, shaped by methodological nationalism, excludes the multiplicity of non-Persian realities and perspectives not anchored in the Iranian nation-state. Drawing on critical sociology and postcolonial theory, the article advocates a decolonial reorientation that centers marginalized epistemologies, embraces relational methodologies, and challenges the nation-state as the default entity. This approach invites Iranian sociology to adopt a reflexive, ethical stance attuned to lived experiences beyond abstraction. Methodologically, this article proceeds as a meta-theoretical analysis, deploying a critical review to interrogate the sociological field itself by examining theoretical foundations, dominant research methods, canonical textbooks, and the broader academic infrastructures of Iranian social science.