Journal of Culture-Communication Studies

Journal of Culture-Communication Studies

The Politics of Culture in Development Policy: A Critical Analysis of the Relationship between Culture and Development in the 7th Development Plan Law

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
tohid Esmaeilpour 1
Mohammad Hadi Homayoon 2
1 Researcher at the Governance Studies Group, Majlis Research Center, Tehran, Iran. (Corresponding author) Email: t.esmaeilpour@mrc.ir
2 Full Professor, Faculty of Islamic Studies, Culture and Communication, Imam Sadiq University, Tehran, Iran. Email: homayoon@isu.ac.ir
10.22083/jccs.2025.545405.4102
Abstract
Introduction: The relationship between culture and development is a longstanding point of contention in development studies, reflecting competing paradigms of societal progress rather than a purely technical policy issue. These paradigms range from instrumental perspectives that treat culture as a resource for economic growth to humanistic approaches that regard it as the foundation of meaningful human flourishing. Post-revolutionary Iran provides a particularly important context for examining this debate. Officially, the state endorses the Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress, a normative meta-paradigm that defines moral, spiritual, and human transcendence as the ultimate goals of social advancement. In practice, however, many policy documents continue to be shaped by instrumental and technocratic rationalities that prioritize economic growth, efficiency, and administrative performance.
Iran’s Seventh Five-Year Development Plan Law (2024) offers an important case for investigating this tension. As the country’s principal medium-term strategic policy document, it not only guides administrative planning but also institutionalizes particular understandings of culture, progress, and governance. This study analyzes the discursive architecture of the Seventh Development Plan to identify the paradigms shaping the relationship between culture and development and to assess the extent to which its operational logic aligns with the normative vision articulated in the Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress.
Methods: This study adopts a qualitative research design using a single-case study strategy centered on the Seventh Five-Year Development Plan Law. A directed qualitative content analysis was conducted based on a pre-established theoretical framework comprising five paradigms of culture–development relations: functionalist (P1), economic (P2), sustainability (P3), humanistic/transcendence-oriented (P4), and sovereignty-oriented (P5). The Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress served as the normative benchmark for interpretation.
The empirical corpus consisted of the complete text of the law (120 articles across 24 chapters). Each provision was systematically coded according to the five paradigms, and the distribution, interaction, and relative dominance of the codes were analyzed to identify hegemonic discursive coalitions and marginalized perspectives. Reliability was enhanced through expert review and repeated coding to ensure internal consistency.
Findings: The Seventh Development Plan displays a heterogeneous and contested discursive structure. A hegemonic coalition of the economic (P2) and functionalist (P1) paradigms dominates the document, representing culture primarily as a resource for economic growth, productivity, and market competitiveness. Policies promoting the cultural economy and aligning education with labor-market demands exemplify this techno-economic orientation.
Nevertheless, alternative discourses remain visible. Provisions reflecting the sustainability (P3) and humanistic (P4) paradigms address regional inequality, social justice, environmental protection, and human well-being. Although these perspectives challenge the reduction of progress to economic performance, they remain institutionally peripheral. At the same time, the law is framed by a sovereignty-oriented (P5) discourse emphasizing national independence, technological self-sufficiency, and geopolitical resilience. Overall, the policy architecture reveals a layered configuration in which techno-economic rationality predominates while being partially moderated by social, environmental, and sovereignty-related considerations.
Conclusion: The analysis reveals a significant gap between the normative ideals articulated in the Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress and the operational logic embedded in the Seventh Development Plan. Although official discourse promotes a culture-centered vision of human development, the law largely adopts instrumental and economistic rationalities that implicitly construct individuals primarily as economic actors valued for their productivity.
This conception contrasts sharply with the multidimensional and transcendence-oriented view of the human subject advanced by the Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress. The limited institutional presence of this humanistic paradigm highlights a structural disconnect between declared cultural aspirations and the practical mechanisms of national planning. These findings demonstrate that development policy is not a neutral technical exercise but a contested ideological field in which competing paradigms struggle for dominance. Bridging the gap between culture-centered aspirations and prevailing techno-economic policymaking therefore requires a fundamental paradigmatic transformation rather than incremental policy adjustments.
Keywords
Culture and Development
Development Policy
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA)
Iran’s 7th Development Plan
Islamic-Iranian Model of Progress
Subjects
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