Book contents
- A Social History of Modern Tehran
- The Global Middle East
- A Social History of Modern Tehran
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Segmented Society and the Social Production of Communal Spaces
- 2 Segmented Society and Spaces of Political Mobilization
- 3 Iranian Travelers and the Production of Spatial Knowledge
- 4 The Qajar Court and the City
- 5 The Interwar Period and Middle-Class Urbanism
- 6 The Age of Social Movements
- Conclusion
- Appendix Protest, Political Gatherings, and Parades between 1941 and 1953
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - Segmented Society and Spaces of Political Mobilization
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 December 2022
- A Social History of Modern Tehran
- The Global Middle East
- A Social History of Modern Tehran
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Foreword
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Segmented Society and the Social Production of Communal Spaces
- 2 Segmented Society and Spaces of Political Mobilization
- 3 Iranian Travelers and the Production of Spatial Knowledge
- 4 The Qajar Court and the City
- 5 The Interwar Period and Middle-Class Urbanism
- 6 The Age of Social Movements
- Conclusion
- Appendix Protest, Political Gatherings, and Parades between 1941 and 1953
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
By utilizing the notions of the communal sphere and segmented urban society developed in Chapter 1, this chapter investigates the relationship between society and the state as mediated through the spatiality of the city. It studies Iranians’ political practices in public spaces that contested the state during the 1905–6 Constitutional Revolution. It seeks to better understand the troubled relationship between society and the state and its geographical manifestations. As a result of this troubled relationship, Iranian society managed to delimitate the absolutist monarchy and bind it to certain political and social norms. Two theoretical concepts stand out in this context: the public sphere and the political public space. This chapter deals with the relationship between these two concepts in a different geography, beyond the dominance of Western European and North American narratives. Drawing in part on Jürgen Habermas’s discussion in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere, here I understand the public sphere as a medium between society and the state that enables the former to exert influence on the latter. Political public spaces provide unique platforms for people’s collective political activities, and do so in ways that intersect with other aspects of urban life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- A Social History of Modern TehranSpace, Power, and the City, pp. 68 - 134Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023