The Pattern of Convergence of People and Clergy in the Islamic Republic of Iran via a Grounded Theory Approach

After the revolution of Iran, the clergy play an important role in reviving and promoting religious education. With the passage of time and changes in the society and some environmental factors, the social place of the clergy has been damaged. This study explains the various aspects of the convergence of people and clergy using the Grounded Theory database method. This research has been carried out through a six semi-structured interviews of elites, a brainstorming session with the presence of eleven experts and university professors, the use of documents and interviews on the issue of the people and the clergy, as well as the use of the speeches of the two imams of the revolution and interviews with different classes of people to obtain the perspective of the society in the causes of people's interaction with the clergy. The data obtained in the form of open coding led to the emergence of 178 abstract concepts in the form of 54 components. Then these components were related to each other in the axial coding process. Finally, by selective coding in five cases, different aspects of convergence of people and clergy have been examined. The theory of data analysis shows that the central category has been defined as the interaction of people and clergy. On the other hand, according to the data, the causes and factors of intervention and foundation, strategies and consequences are explained in detail.