Journal of Iranian Social Studies

Life as Resistance: The Lived Experience of the Shooti Drivers of the City of Baneh

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mohammad Yazdaninasab 1
Keyvan Behzadi 2

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran

2 MA Graduated in Sociology, Shahid Beheshti University, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22034/jss.2024.2008663.1785
Abstract
Smuggling goods has long been one of the important social issues in parts of  Iran, and a lot of studies have been conducted on this issue. So far, pathological view has been the most common perspective in these studies. Never the less, this viewpoint could not lead us to a deep-rooted understanding of the issue. Instead, examining the lived experiences of the real people who has been involved in such a profession would be a better way for an in-depth understanding of the problem.  By Using hermeneutical phenomenology and narrative interviews with 15 Shooti drivers of Baneh, we have attempted to analyze their lived experience. The most important themes, based on narratives, are the context of emergence of goods smuggling, dangers of the job, the strategies of encountering these dangers, and the last but not the least, understanding smuggling.  The research reveals that context and situation prepare them to start the job, and factors like, enormous profits, disproportion of crime and punishment, low probability of being arrested, and availability of resistance strategies explain the continuation of the practice. From another perspective the profession could be understood as resistance against inequal structures. Shooti’s resistance may be divided into passive and active.  Passive resistance refers to those shooties who leave smuggling when they find a desirable job.  Active resistance refers to the behavior of those shootis who love this job because of the identity the job gives them as a man who resists and struggles against a discriminating society. These group of shooties don’t leave their job even when they find other job opportunities. The second group are more frequent among shooti drivers. This kind of resistance is against both regional inequality as well as legitimate ways with which people become successful in the today’s life.  

Keywords

Goods smuggling
Shooti
resistance
hermeneutical phenomenology
City of Baneh
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Journal of Iranian Social Studies
Volume 17, Issue 4
Winter 2024
Pages 133-157

  • Receive Date 19 August 2023
  • Revise Date 29 July 2024
  • Accept Date 27 August 2024
  • First Publish Date 22 October 2024
  • Publish Date 22 October 2024

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