Tehran’s Borderlines
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.
Jaleh Jalili is an assistant professor of sociology at Rice University, Houston. 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.
