A Critical Approach to the Impact of Rentier Capitalism on Urban Spaces (Case Study: Megamalls of Tehran)

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Candidate in Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, University of Tabriz, Iran.

2 Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, University of Tabriz, Iran.

3 Assistant Professor of Political Geography, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Problem statement: Capitalism, in its modern sense, has been associated with the Industrial Revolution and is a system in which the means of production, distribution, and exchange are at one’s disposal. A system that has three basic characteristics; Complete competition includes freedom of choice and consumption. Capital circulation and accumulation of capital are some of the most important and main features of the capitalist system (CS) and capital due to its inherent nature (profitability). These features lead to the production and creation of new spaces in cities and metropolises. What in most developed countries are seen and are becoming apparent in all urban areas, including public spaces (PSS) and megamalls. Similarly, there is a CS in the cities of Iran, and the capital accumulation flow has failed to create a productive infrastructure in the cities, and capitalism, trade, monopoly, and rent have been formed. Controls and packages are created. Therefore, in Iran, as in developing countries, a CS has become common, but with different nature, in which many factors play a role in shaping this system and have produced spaces.
Research objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the rentier capitalist system (RCS) on the urban spaces of Tehran in the form of megamalls.
Research method: This research is by objectively basic-applied type, and the documentary-library method was used to collect theoretical sources and logical analysis.
Conclusion: The results indicate that in recent decades, the spaces of Tehran in the form of megamalls have replaced the uses of public spaces such as parks and public spaces (PSS) and since the 1980s, these spaces have been monitored and controlled. Urban spaces (USS) have become a rent-seeking, competitive, consumer, and unproductive space that has driven the majority of urban dwellers to the outskirts of cities, making them a merely accessible place for the affluent and the capitalist class to make more profit.

Keywords


Afrakhteh, H. & Hajjipour, M. (2016). The political economy of space and Iran’s regional balance. Space Economy & Rural Development, 4(14), 87-110.
Ali Akbari, I. (2015). Iranian Contemporary City: The Morphology Bases of Rentier Pattern of the Iranian City (Case Study: Shahr e Kurd). Journal of Studies On Iranian - Islamic City, 5(19), 29-39.
Borhani, K., Rafiyan, M. & Meshkini, A. (2017). Land Use Change and Political Economy of Space: Developing a Theoretical- Integrated Model. Iranian Journal of Sociology, 18(36), 86-109.
Brenner, N., Marcuse, P. & Margit., M. (2017). Cities for People, not for Profit: Critical Urban Theory and the Right to the City (M. Abdullahzadeh, Trans.). Tehran: Daftar-e Pajohesh-ha-ye Farhangi.
Castells, M. (1978). City, Class and Power. New York: St Martin’s Press.
Demir, F. (2007). The rise of rentier capitalism and the financialization of real sectors in developing countries. Review of Radical Political Economics, 39(3), 351-359.
Demirbas, D. & Demirbas, S. (2011). Role of the state in developing countries: public choice versus Schumpeterian approach. Business and Economics Research Journal, 2(1), 15-30.
Di Tella, R. & MacCulloch, R. (2007). Why doesn’t Capitalism flow to Poor Countries? Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, 1, 285-321.
Fani, Z., Mahmoudi, L. (2018). Tolid-e faza-ye shahri dar gofteman-e segane-ye Lefebvre va paradaim-e shahriat-e Mumford [The production of urban space in Lefebvre’s three discourses and the paradigm of Mumford’s citizenship. The growth of geographical education]. Roshd-e Amoozesh-e Joghrafia, (120), 36-42.
Frank, A.G. (2004). The development of underdevelopment. Monthly Review, 17-30.
Goodarzi.M. et al. (2017). Forgotten Capital; A Case Study of the Quality of Trust Between the Private Sector and the Government. Entrepreneurial Publishing. Chamber of Commerce. Tehran: Karafarin.
Gunning, J. P. (2014). Understanding Democracy: An Introduction to Public Choice (H. Rabiee, Trans.). Tehran: Donya-ye Eghtesad.
Harvey, D. (2013). The Right to the City, The Urban Roots of Financial Crises, Socialist Register, Crowd Politics or Here Comes Everybody (Kh. Kalantari, Trans.). Tehran: Mehr Vista.
Hutton, W. & Lee, N. (2012). The City and the cities: ownership, finance and the geography of recovery. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, 5(3), 325-337.
Huyssen, A. (2007). Geographies of modernism in a globalizing world. In  P. Brooker & A. Thacker (Eds.), Geographies of Modernism: Literatures, Cultures, Spaces. London: Routledge.  (pp. 16-28).
Jagannath, T. (2018). Theories on public spaces: A case study of Trafalgar Square (Unpublished master Thesis in Geography). Faculty of Geography, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Jahan, S. & Mahmud, A.S. (2015). What Is Capitalism? Finance & Development, 52(2), 44-45.
Jessop, B. (1982). The Capitalist State. New York: New York University Press.
Kalantari, A. & Sedighi Kasmaee, M. (2017). Az motalebe-ye hagh-e be shahr ta sheklgiri-ye enghelab-e shahri [From demanding the right to the city to the formation of the urban revolution (Tehran, 1978)]. Motale’at-e Jame’e Shaenakhti-ye Shahri, 7(23), 53-77.
Kheyroddin, R, Taghvaee, A. & Imani Shamloo, J. (2014). Analysis of Spatial Developments in Metropolises in Relation to Oil Price Changes in Iran (Case Study: Tabriz Metropolis). Journal of Iranian Architecture and Urbananism, 4(2), 17-36.
Khan, M. (2000). Rents, Rent-seeking and Economic Development: An Introduction. In M. Khan & J. Kwame Sundaram (Eds.), Rents, Rent-seeking and Economic Development: Theory and Evidence from Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Khansari, M. (2019). Sarab-e tose’e darbare-ye bohran-ha-ye sakhtari-ye eghtesad-e Iran [Development mirage; About the structural crises of Iran’s economy]. Tehran: Amin Al-Zarb.
Lefebvre, H. & Nicholson-Smith, D. (1991). The Production of Space. (Vol. 142). Blackwell: Oxford.
Lefebvre, H. (2014). Space, Difference, Everyday Life: Reading Henri Lefebvre (A. Khakbaz & M. Fazeli, Trans.). Tehran: Nisa.
Merrifield, A. (2017). The New Urban Question (M.H. Yazdani, M. Parsai Moghadam & H. Meshgini, Trans.). Ardabil: Gunesh.
Mitchell, D. (2003). The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. New York: Guilford press.
Pollock, F. (1941). State capitalism: its possibilities and limitations. Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, 9(2), 200-225.
Rahmani, Sh. (2015). The relationship between the support structure and urban power with the organization of space (Case study of Tehran) (Unpublishe Master Thesis in Urbanism). Faculty of Art and Architecture, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran.
Rahnamaei, M. & Ashraf, Y. (2007). Faza-ha-ye omomi-ye shahr va naghsh-e an dar sheklgiri-ye jame’e-ye madani [Public spaces of the city and their role in the formation of civil society. Iranian Geographical Association]. Geography, 5(14 & 15), 23-46.
Reiess Dana, F. (2016). Eghtased-e siasi-ye tose’e [Political Economy of Development]. Tehran: Negah.
Rohit S. (2015). David Harvey: City as space for change. History, 1-4. Retrieved  from https://www.academia.edu/20537046/David_Harvey_City_as_Space_for_Change.
Shalchi, V. & Jong, A. (2016). Reproduction of social inequality in Tehran through the interaction of capital and space. Quarterly Journal of Socio-Cultural Development Studies, 5(1), 87-120.
Sharipour, M. (2015). Right to the city and urban public spaces. People and Culture, 1(2), 51-66.
Shakoei, H. (2019). New Perspectives in Urban Geography. V. 1. Tehran: SAMT.
Sattarzadeh. D., Naghizadeh, M. & Habib, F. (2011). Urban space, a social thought. Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, 12(4), 173-183.
Taghvaee, A., Azizi, D. & Yazdanian, A. (2016). Investiate the role of “the right to the city” theoty in the productin and reproductin of urban space. Haft Shahr, 4(49 & 50), 88-99.
Tavassolian, R., Roustaei, Sh., Heydari Chiyaneh, R. & Adgari Zamani, A. (2019). Analysis of the Residential Land Supply Policies, production of Rent Space and Urban Construction Coherence (Case Study: Zanjan City). Journal of Sustainable City, 2(3), 79-95.
Turkmeh, A. (2016). Eghtesad-e siasi-ye faza (Motale’e-ye moredi: mahale-ye Harandi, Tehran) [The political economy of space (Case study: Harandi neighborhood of Tehran)]. The first international conference on urban economics (on the function of resistance economy, action, and practice), Anjoman-e Elmi-ye Eghtesad-e Shahri-ye Iran, Tehran.
Wiedmann, F., Salama, M. A. & 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.
Yaghfoori, H. & Kashfi Dost, I. (2019). Evaluation of the components derived from the right to the city (Case study: Piranshahr city). Research and Urban Planning, 9(35), 57-68.
Yousefi, A., Arghan, A. & Kamyabi, S. (2018). Sarmayedari-ye mostaghelat va tahavolat-e faza dar nahie-ye piramini-ye Shahed Shar [Real estate capitalism and space developments in the suburbs of Shahed Shahr. Space Economy and Rural Development, 7(25), 67-86.
Yousefian Ahari. H. & Jalali, S. (2016). Barresi-ye naghsh0-e eghtesad-e siasy dar faza-ha-ye shahri-ye emrozi fh takid bar shahr-e Tabriz [A study of the role of political economy in today’s urban spaces with an emphasis on the city of Tabriz]. Fourth National Conference on Sustainable Development in Geography and Planning. Architecture and Urbanism. Mehr Arvand Higher Education Institute, Center for Strategies for Achieving Sustainable Development, Tehran, Iran.