“Berkeley Lecture Series” presents:
A Talk by Dr. Kaveh Ehsani, Research Scholar, University of Illinois, Chicago
Topic: Survival Trough Dispossession: Privatization of Public Goods in the Islamic Republic
“In recent years the privatization of state assets has become the main economic strategy of the Islamic republic. There is a vast consensus across the ideological and political spectrum in support of this strategy, which demands a re-interpretation of the Article 44 of the constitution. If actually carried out this program of privatization will bring about a veritable “economic revolution” in Iran (as Ayatollah Rafsanjani claims).” This talk will concentrate on providing a history and a critical analysis of what privatization of public property entails in contemporary Iran.
Kaveh Ehsani is Research Scholar at the University of Illinois in Chicago and a fellow of ISIM at the University of Leiden. He is an editor of the Goftogu Quarterly in Iran and of Middle East Report (Merip) in Washington DC. Currently he is completing a book titled Oil and Society; the Refinery City of Abadan and Urban Modernity in 20th Century Iran (Brill Publishers). His recent publications include “The Urban Provincial Periphery in Iran” in Contemporary Iran, Ali Gheissari ed.; “The Political Structure of US and the Threats to Iranian National Interests” in Goftogu; “The Populist Threat to Democracy” MER; “Rural Society and Agrarian Development in Iran after the revolution” in Critique.
Date: Sunday, February 10, 2008
Time: 4:00 P.M.
Place: 20 Barrows Hall
University of California, Berkeley
http://www.berkeley.edu/map/maps/large_map.html
Lecture in English
Suggested Donation: $10.00
No donation expected from students
Further questions may be directed to: berkeleylectures@yahoo.com