Water Crisis, Tradition and Development in Iran: Rethinking about Modernization Considering the Documentary of “Matricide”

Most of the programs in Iran which were defined and carried out in the name of “modernization” had nothing to do with the cultural and “indigenous” elements of the country, so, they exacerbated some “crisis” in the field of environment and water. Therefore, it seems that it is necessary to rethink the concepts of “modernization” and “development”; relying on the concept of “tradition” and looking for the “emancipatory social science”, we should try to transform a paradigm which is eliminating and fighting against the concept of “nature”, as Hanna Arendt argued. I believe that the admired documentary entitled “Matricide”, directed by KomeilSohani, which has been showed in Iran and some other countries, with a historical approach, has the capacity to develop such an “emancipatory social science”. This movie has criticized a “technical” approach retrieved from “partial modernization”, and showed that how far previous decisions made by the Iranian politicians, in the same approach, has endanger current Iranian’s life. It seems that the theoretical and methodological approach of the movie is similar to what is bring followed in the field of “new institutionalism”. In this field of study both “historical” and “indigenous” forms of life are considered prominently. Subsequently, by using the approach, we can rethink the foundations of the “modernization” school, which has effected not only on Iran, but on the rest of the world, with its “negative externalities”. Hence, in this article, with emphasis on this approach and that documentary, the researcher criticized the peculiarities of current knowledge in facing the loop of “environmental crisis” and “water crisis” in Iran; then, I emphasis on the “new institutionalism” as an alternative emancipatory paradigm, towards an understanding of the problems of the nature in Iran.