Tehran's Borderlines: Urban Development and Public Life in Contemporary Iran

by Jaleh Jalili

Overview

Tehran has changed in recent decades. Rapid urban development through the expansion of subway lines, highways, bridges, and tunnels, and the emergence of new public spaces have drastically reshaped the physical spaces of Tehran. As the city changes, so do its citizens, their social relations, and their individual and collective perceptions of urban life, class, and culture. Tehran's Borderlines is about the social relations that are interrupted, facilitated, forged, and transformed through processes of urban development. Focusing on the use of public spaces, this book provides an analysis of urban social relations in the context of broader economic, cultural, and political forces. The book offers a narrative of how public spaces function as manifestations of complex relations among citizens of different backgrounds, between citizens and the state, and between forces that shape the physical realities of spaces and the conceptual meanings that citizens create and assign to them.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781009389051
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	02/06/2025
Pages:	184
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.51(d)

About the Author

Jaleh Jalili is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Rice University. She holds a doctoral degree in sociology from Brandeis University and is a recipient of a dissertation fellowship from the Mellon Foundation for her work on urban development and social change in Iran. Trained as an architect and urban designer in Tehran, she conducts interdisciplinary research on social and spatial dynamics of urban environments.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: public space and urban life; 2. The city: 'the making of a metropolis'; 3. The market: inequality and spatial patterns of consumption; 4. The street: non-economic inequalities and navigating space; 5. The vista: spatial boundaries, self, and others; 6. The highway: 'a city of my own'; 7. Conclusion: up in the mountains, back to the city; Appendices; Bibliography; Index.