Abstract
Social and spatial inequalities are important challenges in today’s urban life. Socio-economic inequalities sometimes manifest themselves in the form of spatial inequality. In other words, spatial inequality represents social inequality or distribution disorder in the social system. Tehran, as a metropolis and the capital of Iran, has a crucial role in the national system. The continuous growth and development of Tehran has unbalanced its system. The city has attracted a large population. As a centre, Tehran plays an important role in the country’s macro socio-economy but its urban components suffer from spatial inequality and unbalanced distribution of services. One of the most visible characteristics of Tehran is its North-South spatial inequality and polarisation created by modernisation and its elements such as cars and newly emerged business districts. Although the revolution of 1979 came with a promise of equality and improvement of lifestyle for the poor and the marginalised, the growing gap between the rich and the poor and spatial inequality in Tehran in the ensuing years have been widened. Although most urban planners and sociologists in Iran think that spatial inequality in Tehran is a historic trend and not caused by globalisation, others believe that globalisation has intensified it. A global city or not, this chapter illustrates old and new emerging spatial inequality lines and patterns in Tehran, and also examine the theory of ‘Global City’ (Saskia Sassen’s theory) between 1996 and 2006 on this case.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsAbbreviations
- GaWC:
-
Globalization and World Cities Research Network
- MENA:
-
Middle East and North Africa CBD
- GDP:
-
Gross Domestic Product
- MAUP:
-
Modifiable Areal Unit Problem
References
Amirahmadi H, Kiafar A (1987) Tehran: growth and contradiction. J Plan Educ Res 6(3):167–177
Atlas of Tehran Metropolis (2006) [online]. Available from http://atlas.tehran.ir/. Accessed May 2012
Castells M (1989) The informational city: information technology, economic restructuring and the urban-regional process. Basil Blackwell, Oxford
Ganes HJ (1982) Urban villagers: group and class in the life of italian-Americans. The Free Press (Macmillan Co., Inc.); Updated and Expanded edition (1 June 1982)
Hamnett C (1994) Social polarization in global cities: theory and evidence. Urban Stud 31:401–424
Hamnett C (2001) Social segregation and social polarization. In: Paddison A (ed) Handbook of urban studies. SAGE Publication, London, pp 162–176
Harvey D (1996) Justice, nature and the geography of difference. Blackwell, Oxford
Hayward P, Parent J (2009) Modelling the influence of the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) on poverty in Pennsylvania. PA Geogr 47(1)—spring/summer 2009
Madanipour A (1998) Tehran: the making of a Metropolis (world cities series). Academy Press
Madanipour A (1999) City profile, Tehran. Cities 16(1):57–65, printed in Great Britain
Madanipour A (2010) The limits of scientific planning: Doxiadis and the Tehran action plan. Plan Perspect 25(4):485–504
Sassen S (1988) The mobility of labor and capital: a study in international, investment and labor flow. Cambridge University, Cambridge
Sassen S (1991) The global city. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Sassen S (2001) The global city: New York, London, Tokyo, revised edition (Originally published in 1991), Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ
Short JR (2004) Black holes and loose connections in a global urban network. Prof Geogr 56:295–302
Tehran Municipality [online]. Available from http://www.tehran.ir. Accessed May 2012
Tehran Municipality Reports on Iran Statistical Centre [online]. Available from http://www.sci.org.ir. Accessed May 2012
Tuan Y-F (1974) Topophilia: a study of environmental perception, attitudes, and values. Prentice Hall
Wacquant L (2008) Logics of urban polarization from below. Polity Press, Urban Outcasts
World Bank (2010) Poor places, thriving people: how the Middle East and North Africa can rise above spatial disparity [online]. Available from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTMENA/Resources/OverviewENprintersversionspatialdisparities.pdf. Accessed June 2012
World Bank [online]. Available from http://www.worldbank.org. Accessed May 2012
Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Professor Costanzo Ranci from the Politecnico di Milano for his patient and constructive comments on this research, and our friend, Yanin Chivakidakarn, Ph.D. Candidate at Politecnico di Milano, for her valuable supports.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rabiei-Dastjerdi, H., Kazemi, M. (2016). Tehran: Old and Emerging Spatial Divides. In: Arefian, F., Moeini, S. (eds) Urban Change in Iran. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26115-7_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26115-7_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-26113-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-26115-7
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)