The paradoxical situation of the first social science institution in Iran, Institute of Social Studies and Research from the beginning to the Islamic Revolution

This article re-examines the socio-political context of foundation of The Institute of Social Studies and Research, its relationship to the power structure, and public intellectuals as well as its rise and fall in the first two decades of activity from the beginning to the Islamic Revolution. The Institute is the first social science institution in Iran, emerging quarter century after establishment of Tehran University, which founded to act as a research aid of the Shah administration for accomplishment of modernization programs. The Institute, like the social sciences itself, was bounded with three dimensions: academy, political power, and the public sphere. So, its ups and downs were highly dependent to its relations with theses three domains. Despite its paradoxical situation, the Institute was very successful in the first decade, drawing the attention of statesmen and intellectuals to the importance of the social sciences, so that the social research became a focus for converging interests of the regime and its opponents. However the gradual change of these relations, as well as changing government's viewpoint on the Institute, pushed it to the margin of academy. Nevertheless, the Institute's contribution to the consolidation and expansion of the social sciences in Iran is undeniable.