Iran is a key player in some of the most crucial issues of our time. But because of its relative diplomatic isolation and the partisan nature of conflicting accounts voiced by different interest groups both inside and outside the country, there is a shortage of hard information about the scale and depth of social change in today's Iran. In this volume, and imposing roster of both internationally renowned Iranian scholars and rising young Iranian academics offer contributions--many based on recent fieldwork--on the nature and evolution of Iran's economy, significant aspects of Iran's changing society, and the dynamics of its domestic and international politics since the 1979 revolution, focusing particularly on the post-Khomeini period. The book will be of great interest not only to Iran specialists, but also to scholars of comparative politics, democratization, social change, politics in the Muslim world, and Middle Eastern studies.

Ali Gheissari is Professor of History at the University of San Diego and a Visiting Fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford.

• Introduction - Ali Gheissari


• Part One: Economy


• 1: The Oil Wealth and Economic Growth in Iran, by Djavad Salehi-Isfahani


• 2: The Urban Provincial Periphery in Iran: Revolution and War in Ramhormoz, by Kaveh Ehsani


• 3: Nimble Fingers No Longer! Womens Employment in Iran, by Roksana Bahramitash and Hadi Salehi Esfahani


• Part Two: Society


• 4: Religion, Women, and Political Agency in Iran, by Shahla Haeri


• 5: Who Will Catch Me if I Fall? Health and the Infrastructure of Risk for Urban Young Iranians, by Pardis Mahdavi


• 6: From Punishment to Harm Reduction: Resecularization of Addiction in Contemporary Iran, by Amir-Arsalan Afkhami


• 7: Irans New Scientific Community, by Farhad Khosrokhavar


• Part Three: Politics


• 8: Constitutional Implications of Current Political Debates in Iran, by Saïd Amir Arjomand


• 9: New Conservative Politics and Electoral Behavior in Iran, by Ali Gheissari and Kaveh-Cyrus Sanandaji


• 10: Ethnicity and Religious Minority Politics in Iran, by Nayereh Tohidi


• 11: Irans Regional Policies since the End of the Cold War, by Anoushiravan Ehteshami


• 12: Irans Persian Gulf Policy in the Post-Saddam Era: Transformation from Revolutionary to Status Quo Power, by Mohsen M. Milani


• Index