Tehran, the capital of Iran since the late eighteenth century, is now one of the largest cities in the Middle East. Exploring Tehran's development from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, Ashkan Rezvani Naraghi paints a vibrant picture of a city undergoing rapid and dynamic social transformation. Rezvani Naraghi demonstrates that this shift was the product of a developing discourse around spatial knowledge, in which the West became the model for the social practices of the state and sections of Iranian society. As traditional social spaces, such as coffee houses, bathhouses, and mosques, were replaced by European-style cafes, theatres, and sports clubs, Tehran and its people were irreversibly altered. Using an array of archival sources, Rezvani Naraghi stresses the agency of everyday inhabitants in shaping urban change. This enlightening history not only allows us to better understand the contours of contemporary Tehran, but to develop a new way of imagining, talking about, and building 'the city'.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
'In this meticulous and careful study, Tehran is no longer just a setting or even a contested site, but an almost living creature that shares in and shapes its inhabitants' lives and social transformations over time. This book is a gift from an insightful colleague who, though lost to us now, invites us to revisit our own work with fresh eyes and prods us towards new and productive lines of inquiry.' Camron Michael Amin, University of Michigan-Dearborn 'This book is a seminal analysis of the role of Tehran in Iran's social history. Based on a valuable array of primary material, it provides a unique window into the human and physical geographies of the capital during the turbulent social transformations of the first part of the twentieth century. A refreshing addition to our understanding of modern Iran.' Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, University of St Andrews 'This book is an incredibly rich mine of information for anyone interested in social history. As a scholar working on political contention and mobilizations, I appreciated Naraghi's mastery in explaining that the socially embedded knowledge of how and where to protest builds upon existing spatial practices of communal life and how such knowledge has changed across the decades as a reflection of the meaning of 'living together'. Intertwining cultural history, human and political geography, economic, gender, and class analysis, [this] is a must-read for any scholar interested in Iran and an extremely beneficial reading for social scientists in general.' Paola Rivetti, American Historical Review
Reihe
Sprache
Verlagsort
Illustrationen
Worked examples or Exercises
Maße
Höhe: 235 mm
Breite: 157 mm
Dicke: 31 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-1-009-18889-0 (9781009188890)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Ashkan Rezvani Naraghi (1983-2020) was Assistant Professor in the School of Urban Planning and Design at the University of Tehran. He received his Ph.D. in Urban Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2016 and his article on middle-class urbanism appeared in Iranian Studies in 2017.
Autor*in
University of Tehran, Iran
Foreword by Arshin Adib-Moghaddam; Preface by Jennifer A. Jordan; 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: spatial strategies of the state in the nineteenth century; 5. The interwar period and middle-class urbanism; 6. The age of social movements: the transformation of political public space; Conclusion; Appendix: protest, political gatherings, and parades between 1941 and 1953; Bibliography; Index.
