The Post-development Thought of Sayyid Mortaza Avini

It became significant in finding development in Iran after the emergence of the new industrial order in the West that leads to a debate on how Iran should confront the phenomenon of high economic development. In contemporary Iranian history, Western-oriented elites have attributed Iran’s backwardness to not following the methods that the West used to achieve development. Therefore, especially during the Pahlavi era, development planning with a Western-centric approach was implemented to address this backwardness. Undoubtedly, the realization of the Islamic Revolution can be considered as a confrontation with this style of modernization, which has led to serious criticisms from some thinkers. The present study examines the Sayyid Mortaza Avini’s thoughts on development economics, who is one of these intellectuals. This paper aims to investigate the question of ‘What components Avini’s thought on development is based on?’ The findings indicated that Avini has criticized Western development while also aligning with some post-development thinkers. Although he goes beyond the post-development approach and, influenced by the ideas of the Islamic Revolution and based on Islamic and indigenous elements such as religious identity and Islamic justice, he presents an alternative version of development (progress accompanied by spirituality). This way, he addresses his most important concern regarding the issue of progress positively. The method of this article will be grounded theory and data collection based on library research.