Alienation in Everyday Life: Case Study of Urban Space in Tehran

Document Type : *

Authors

• Niloufar Baghban Moshiri ¹
• Abbas Varij Kazemi ²
• Kamran Rabiei ³
• Zahra Ahmadipour ⁴

¹ PhD in Cultural Sociology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

² Associate Professor in Sociology, Department of Cultural Studies,Cultural and Social Studies Institute, Tehran, Iran

³ Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

⁴ Professor, Department of Political Geography, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/social.2023.78339.1220

Abstract

Such issues as authoritative space design, unproductivity of urban management, and the inability of urban space to facilitate the emergence of differences and transfer of meaning lead to the experience of alienation in the daily life of the residents of Tehran. Taking an anthropological and critical approach and applying Henri Lefebvre’s theory of production of space, this research compared class experience of alienation among the residents of Tehran. Alienation was defined as an instrumental relationship against a relationship for its own sake and appropriation against ownership. Space of stock market, Khalij Fars Lake and Khalazir neighborhood were selected as representatives of abstract and concrete spaces as well as Lefebvre’s trialectics of space. Multiple data were collected through observation, photos, personal interviews, previous studies and ethnographies, documentaries, organizational documents, press reports and online survey about every space. The data was coded, categorized, and analyzed interpretatively and inductively through formal, functional, and structural analysis. The study showed that alienation with others, self, labor, urban space, and everyday life, is a common experience between all classes and is related to the spatial order of the city, but it finds different meanings in the center and the periphery and is integrated in the everyday consciousness in a different way. Alienation in relation of production is experienced in the meaningless work, competitive market, and commodification are common experiences on a global scale, while political and cultural alienations depend on the specific characteristics of Tehran. The moments may be liberating at a level of social reality and remain fruitless at a higher level. The diverse manifestations of daily life, along with prohibitions, fears, and gaps, prevent the formation of collective consciousness and, as a result, a collective effort to de-alienation.
 

Keywords

• Alienation
• Production of Space
• Everyday Life
• Urban Space

20.1001.1.20081383.1401.19.3.5.0

References

1. اباذری، ی.، و ذاکری، آ. (27 آذر، 1397). سخنرانی رویکردی جامعه‌شناختی به توسعه عادلانه. دانشگاه الزهرا، تهران، ایران. بازیابی از https://urlis.net/ky5pcdmx
2. امیری، م. (1397). بررسی تقابل فضاهای زور و مکان‌های قدرت در شهر تهران (پایان‌نامه کارشناسی‌ارشد). دانشگاه تربیت‌مدرس، تهران، ایران.
3. برگر، پ. و برگر، ب. و کلنر، ه. (1381). ذهن بی‌خانمان: نوسازی و آگاهی. (م. ساوجی، مترجم). تهران: نشر نی.
4. بیات، آ. (1393). سیاست‌های خیابانی، جنبش تهیدستان در ایران. (س. ا. نبوی چاشمی، مترجم). تهران: پردیس دانش.
5. شالچی، س. و شجاعی، م. و فرهنگی، ح. (1395). بازسازی شهری، تصویر تهران و تجربه بیگانگی.فصلنامه تحقیقات فرهنگی ایران، 9(1)، 1-32.‎
6. شهرداری تهران؛ معاونت برنامه‌ریزی، توسعه شهری و امور شورا (1396). فرایند و شاخص‌های برنامه توسعه محله‌ای (اسناد پشتیبان برنامه سوم توسعه شهر تهران). بازیابی از http://www.shoratehran.ir

7. صادقی، ع. (1397). زندگی روزمره تهیدستان شهری. تهران: آگاه.
8. صالحی، و. (6 اردیبهشت، 1400). ۴۶ میلیون ایرانی ۴۰ درصد سرمایه خود را در بورس از دست داده‌اند. بازیابی از https://www.isna.ir/news/1400020603411
9. عالیزاد، ا. و باغبان مشیری، ن. (1398). در امتداد رنج دیرین: معنای زمین‌لرزه سرپل‌ذهاب در متن تجربه زیسته راویان آن. پژوهشنامه مددکاری اجتماعی، 5 (17)، 29-55.
10. مارکس، ک. (1394). دستنوشته‌های اقتصادی و فلسفی 1844. (ح. مرتضوی، مترجم). تهران: آشیان.
11. محمدی، ن. و علیزاده، ت. و حاتمی‌طاهر، ف. (2017). عودلاجان؛ روایت مرگ یک محله: مطالعة پیامدهای معنایی تغییرات فضایی، در محلة عودلاجان تهران.پژوهش های راهبردی مسائل اجتماعی ایران،5(4)، 99-121.
12. مهدوی‌نژاد، م. و مولایی، م. (1392). مقایسه‌ی تطبیقی تهران با شهرهای اسلامی با ساختار مدرن. مرکز مطالعات و برنامه‌ریزی شهر تهران. بازیابی از http://www.rpc.tehran.ir
13. یگی، ر. (1395). ازخودبیگانگی، جهت‌گیری‌های جدید در نظریه انتقادی. (ا. تدین، مترجم). تهران: انتشارات دنیای اقتصاد.

 

14. Baykan, A., & Hatuka, T. (2010). Politics and culture in the making of public space: Taksim Square, 1 May 1977, Istanbul. Planning perspectives, 25(1), 49-68.
15. BBC (2013, April 17). A Flamenco flash mob performance in a Spanish bank. BBC world News. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-22174456
16. Brown, J. (2019). “The banks are our stages”: Flo6x8 and Flamenco performance as protest in Southern Spain. Popular Music and Society, 42(2), 230-252.
17. Butler, C. (2012). Henri lefebvre; Spatial politics, everyday life and the right to the city. New York: Routledge.
18. Buyuk, H. F. (2020). The accused faced charges of trying to overthrow the government during protests in defence of an Istanbul park that went nationwide. BalkanInsight. Retrieved February 18, 2020, from https://is.gd/oPDmqj
19. Celik, S. (2013). Taksim square: A spatial center of the political conflicts in Turkey. Retrieved from https://is.gd/pVY9Tv
20. Crandall, R. (2009). Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. ShutterStock. Retrieved May 9, 2009, from https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/sharjah-united-arab-emirates-south-asian-176332397
21. Delport, P. T., & Lephakga, T. (2016). Spaces of alienation: Dispossession and justice in South Africa. HTS Theological Studies, 72(1), 1-9.
22. Dugan, B. (2007). Loss of identity in disaster: How do you say goodbye to home?. Perspectives in psychiatric care, 43(1), 41-46.
23. Fraser, B. (2015). Urban railways in Buenos aires: Spatial and social alienation in the documentary Film El tren blanco. Transfers, 5(2), 5-22.
24. Geis, K. J., & Ross, C. E. (1998). A new look at urban alienation: The effect of neighborhood disorder on perceived powerlessness. Social Psychology Quarterly. 61 (3), 232-246.
25. Hannah, D. (2004). Architecture of alienation: The double bind and public space. Idea Journal, 5(1), 43-58.
26. Houston, C. (2014). Ankara, Tehran, Baghdad: Three varieties of Kemalist urbanism. Thesis Eleven, 121(1), 57-75.
27. https://blog.ymtvacations.com/dubai-mall-burj-khalifa
28. Ikalovic, V., & Radovic, D. (2018). Dating Tokyo: De-alienation of a metropolis through intimate spaces. Urbanities, 8(2), 23-41.
29. Kanna, A. (2011). Dubai, the city as corporation. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
30. Kipfer, S., & Goonewardena, K. (2013). Urban Marxism and the Post-Colonial question: Henri Lebefvre and Colonisation. Historical Materialism, 21(2), 76-116.
31. Kunhardt, T., & Kunhardt, G. (producers). (2017). Becoming Warren Buffett. [Film; TV Documentary]. HBO.
32. Kuymulu, M. B. (2013). reclaimin the right to the city: Reflections on the urban uprisings in Turkey. City, 17(3), 274-278.
33. Lam-Knott, S. (2020). Contesting brandscapes in Hong Kong: Exploring youth activist experiences of the contemporary consumerist landscape. Urban Studies, 57(5), 1087-1104.
34. Lefebvre, H. (1971). Everyday Life in the Modern World (S. Rabinovitch, Trans). . New York: Harper & Row Publishers.
35. Lefebvre, H. (1991a). Critique of everyday life (Vol. I) (J. Moore, Trans). London: Verso.
36. Lefebvre, H. (1991b). The production of space (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans). Oxford: Basil Blackwell Ltd.
37. Lefebvre, H. (2002). Critique of everyday life (Vol. II) (J. Moore, Trans). London: Verso.
38. Lewis, M. (2010). Liar's poker. New York: WW Norton & Company.
39. Nixon, D. V. (2014). Speeding capsules of alienation? Social (dis) connections amongst drivers, cyclists and pedestrians in Vancouver, BC. Geoforum, 54, 91-102.
40. Ross, C. E., & Mirowsky, J. (2009). Neighborhood disorder, subjective alienation, and distress. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 50(1), 49-64.
41. Russell, W. (2012). ‘I get such a feeling out of… those moments’: playwork, passion, politics and space. International Journal of Play, 1(1), 51-63.
42. Salama, A. M., & Wiedmann, F. (2013). The production of urban qualities in the emerging city of Doha: urban space diversity as a case for investigating the'lived space'. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 7(2), 160-172.
43. Sayers, S. (2011). Marx and Alienation: Essays on Hegelian themes. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
44. Schmitt, R. (2018). Alienation and freedom. New York: Routledge.
45. Silver, D. (2019). Alienation in a four factor world. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 49(1), 84-105.
46. Skempton, S. (2010). Alienation after Derrida. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing.
47. Spradley, J. P. (1980). Participant observation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
48. Thomas, J. (1993). Doing critical ethnography (Vol. 26). California: Sage.
49. Travel Blog (2019). Burj Khalifa: World's tallest building. Travel Blog. December 4, Retrieve from
50. Wainwright, O. (2016, June 21). How we made Tate modern. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://is.gd/G76du0
51. Wiedmann, F., Salama, A. M., & Thierstein, A. (2012). Urban evolution of the city of Doha: An investigation into the impact of economic transformations on urban structures. METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture, 29(2), 35-61.
52. Zamani, F., & Mehan, A. (2019). The abstract space and the alienation of political public space in the Middle East. International Journal of Architectural Research, 13(3), 483-497.
53. Zhelnina, A. (2012). Public spaces as spaces of fear and alienation? Youth in public spaces in St. Petersburg, Russia. Second ISA Forum of Sociology, Buenos Aires, Argentina. August 13, 2012.