Bibliography: #BIB30461

web link	bahai-library.com/bibliography/BIB30461
reference type	Journal Article
title	Constructive Resilience in Response to Oppression : The Strategy of Bahá’ís in Iran
journal	Community Development Journal (Oxford, UK)
author	Tavernaro-Haidarian, Leyla
year	2024
date	January 2024
issue	1
volume	59
abstract	Efforts to respond to oppression are often framed as strategies of 'resistance' or 'liberation.' This paper uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine the assumptions implicit in these strategies and shows that they derive from a realism of 'normative adversarialism,' where confrontation is seen as a natural and inevitable approach for achieving social change. The paper then asks what an alternative conceptual lens might yield, where social transformation is reimagined as evolutionary, developmental and integrative. It concludes that, through such a lens, responding to oppression can be recast as an effort of 'constructive resilience.' Coined in relation to the systematic persecution of Iran’s largest religious minority—the Bahá’í faith—this term describes a strategy of transcending years of state-sponsored discrimination through activities such as literacy and empowerment initiatives for children and youth in socio-economically marginalized neighborhoods, as well as through a home-based university initiative. Consequently, this paper introduces a shift from confrontation to cohesion as the main driver for social change.
notes	Expected to be printed in v.57 no.3 (July 2022). Check for printing at https://academic.oup.com/cdj/issue/57/1.
language	English
keywords	PERSECUTION; OPPRESSION; IRAN; RESILIENCE
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/bsac010
pages	164–179
Legal note	11.

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