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The city of chaos: The housing exclusion network during the Pahlavi era and the 1979 revolution
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Rohollah Ghasemi *   |
| Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran. , r_ghasami@yahoo.com |
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Abstract: (672 Views) |
Objective: This study aims to examine housing conditions during the Pahlavi era, particularly in the 1970s, and to trace the historical process through which housing exclusion networks emerged in Tehran. It further seeks to understand how these networks were translated, stabilized, and reproduced throughout the Pahlavi period.
Method: Actor–Network Theory (ANT) was employed as both the conceptual framework and methodological approach of the study. Using ANT, the housing exclusion network/black box was traced and conceptualized not as a policy failure or demographic consequence, but as a socio-technical “black box” produced through the alignment and translation of heterogeneous actors.
Results: The analysis identified two distinct networks in the formation of the housing exclusion black box during the Pahlavi era: the “City of Stability” (1921–1961) and the “City of Turmoil” (1961–1979). The City of Stability network was primarily composed of modernization and migration actor-networks, which facilitated the transformation of Tehran from a traditional to a modern city, albeit without coherent planning or effective housing policies, while also encouraging gradual urban migration. The City of Turmoil network ultimately generated the severe housing crisis of the 1970s. This network consisted of seven major actor-networks: the City of Stability, land reform, rural migration, development programs, declining mortality rates, the comprehensive urban plan, and Dutch disease. Each actor-network operated through multiple intermediaries with their own forms of agency and influence. For example, Tehran’s natural environment played an active role within the comprehensive plan, while industrialization patterns and dependence on an oil-based economy functioned as intermediaries within the rural migration network.
Conclusions: In the years leading up to the 1979 Revolution, the consequences of uncontrolled oil revenues (Dutch disease), rising unemployment, and the escalating costs of basic necessities—particularly land and housing—became increasingly evident. One of the few economic slogans widely voiced during the Revolution was “Bread, Housing, Freedom.” By the 1970s, the housing exclusion network had become a fully stabilized black box, to the extent that the government was unable to dismantle it despite enacting more than ten housing-related laws and regulations. This finding highlights the central role of housing issues in the social and economic conditions that contributed to the outbreak of the Iranian Revolution. |
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| Keywords: Housing Exclusion, Iranian Revolution of 1979, Actor–Network Theory (ANT), City of Turmoil, Urban Transformation. |
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Full-Text [PDF 1942 kb]
(94 Downloads)
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Type of Study: Research |
Subject:
General
Received: 2025/12/21 | Accepted: 2026/03/15 | Published: 2026/06/10
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