Gentrification as a Tool of Urban Intervention: Representations of space in Urban Policies (A Case Study of Brick Kilns in Tehran Municipality District 19)

Abstract :

This article examines the discourse of gentrification in Zone 3 of Tehran’s District 19, focusing on brick kilns and surrounding informal settlements. The central argument of the study is that urban intervention policies in this area are framed not in terms of improving quality of life or responding to social needs, but within the dominant discourse of “regulation,” “rehabilitation,” “renewal,” and “clearance.” By representing space as a site of “social harm,” “threat,” and “defenseless space,” and by disregarding structural causes of poverty, this discourse creates conditions for interventions that lead to gentrification, rising land values and displacement of marginalized populations

The study employs a mixed-methods approach, including a census of kiln residents (survey), semi-structured interviews with key informants, and review of urban documents. The findings reveal a significant gap between official narratives regarding the kilns and residents’ lived experiences. While municipal authorities depict kiln residents as a social problem and as “undeserving poor,” data show that living in this area results from chronic poverty, limited access to formal housing, and lack of institutional support.

The findings indicate that regulation and urban regeneration projects in Zone 3 are primarily designed to free up land, accommodate new populations, and increase land values, with consequences including forced displacement and residential instability. Accordingly, the core issue lies in the construction of damage-centered space in official discourse—a discourse that reduces problem-solving to spatial cleansing and commodification, disregarding mechanisms that produce marginalization, and resorts to cleansing the surface of the problem

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