Social Sciences

Biocontention and redefining protest at university during the year 2022

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Solmaz Hamidi 1
Saeedeh Amini 1
Abbas Ali Rahbar 2

1 Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Political science, Faculty of Law and political science, University of

10.22054/qjss.2026.91033.2964
Abstract
The protests of 2022 made the universities of Iran one of the main centers of the protest; However, the main part of existing research has analyzed academic protests within the framework of classical social movements, or considered it as an extension of street unrest. This article seeks to understand the nature of student protests in university environment in Iran. Data includes 29 semi-structured interviews with students of different majors that has been analyzed using grounded theory through open, axial and selective coding. The findings show that student protests in 2022 have a distinctive logic which is formed with the concept of “Biocontention” in this research. Biocontention is a “situation” in which a conflict over ways of living, everyday interactions, bodily experience, and the possibility of expression takes shape and is experienced in the everyday context of academia. The article, through a paradigm model of Biocontention, helps to understand the complexity of student protest in non-western context and suggests that protest can be understood as a form of conflict with the existing order over the ways of living.

Keywords

Biocontention
university and daily life
student protest
institutional adjustment
grounded theory
Subjects
Social Sciences

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 22 June 2026

Home

Editorial Board

Guide for Authors

Submit Manuscript

Contact Us