Time and social change in non-western societies: The 1979 Iranian revolution as case study

Abstract

This article aims to propose an explanatory model for social changes in terms of the temporal aspects of society. It begins with a theory of modern society (theory of social acceleration) and discusses why the explanations of social change and stability in non-western societies are required from a time perspective. It uses Iranian society as a case study, arguing that the processes of modernization may shape differently depending on certain social, cultural, and religious relations. In this light, it identifies the main features of the cycle of acceleration formed in Iranian society to answer the question of why the cycle of acceleration could not establish a self-propelling acceleratory formation. To explain the revolution of 1979, this article proposes a modified model of self-interpretation.