Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Paradoxical social life: An analysis of the Interaction between tradition and modernity in the perspectives of Mashhad youth

Articles in Press

Document Type : Scientific Research Manuscript

Authors
Seyed Mohamad Javad Gorji 1
Saedeh Garousi 2
1 PhD Student in Sociology of Iranian Social Issues, Shahid Bahonar University, Kerman, Iran
2 Professor of Sociology, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran
10.22035/jicr.2026.3515.3743
Abstract
Changing the lifestyle of young people is one of the most obvious aspects of social developments and perspectives, the mental aspect of these changes. Iranian society, mixed with tradition, religion and modernity, has organized various lifestyles. Sociological approaches have explained lifestyle mainly through the lens of consumption, differentiation, taste, fashion, identity and meaning, and social research has also addressed the descriptive and explanatory dimensions of this matter. The research was qualitative and conducted using the Strauss-Corbin data-based theory method with the participation of 22 young people aged 18 to 35 living in Mashhad. In contextual conditions, the functional role of religion in everyday life, unstable economy and policies affecting class perception and interaction of tradition, modernity and globalization, in causal conditions, the overshadowing of structures on mentalities, global ideas and self-redefinition, in interventional conditions, social judgment mechanisms, the challenge of collective norms and structural judgments in media fields, elitism and beliefs have played a role. Resistance to relations of domination, structural duality in cultural-political identity, independence in the field of religion and politics, reflective adaptation in facing the world, life based on traditions and multifaceted penetration of charismatic figures, the most important strategies and resistance to conventional models of success, ambiguity towards the future and blaming the political system, conventional and unconventional determinism and comfort seeking have been the main consequences. Conclusion: The objective and subjective life of young people is shaped by a mixture of action and reaction with complex and multi-layered conditions, which is the result of continuous efforts to harmonize the three elements of religion, tradition, and modernity.
Keywords
youth perspectives
tradition
modernity
religion
lifestyle
Subjects
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Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 20 July 2026

  • Receive Date 31 October 2025
  • Revise Date 24 April 2026
  • Accept Date 19 May 2026