Social Problems of Iran

The Birth of Urban biopower: From Expropriation to the Social Death of Neighborhoods: The Case Study of Sanandaj City

Authors

keyhan safari 1
Asghar Izadi Jeiran 2
mohammd Bagher alizadeh 3

1 PhD Candidate in economic sociology and development, Department of Sociology, Faculty of law and social science, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

2 Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of law and social science, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

3 Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of law and social science, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

https://doi.org/10.61186/jspi.15.4.3
Abstract
Although Iranian social sciences in recent years have opened a new chapter on the study of subordination and addressed this subject, but few studies in this field have addressed the mechanism of subordination. In this article, through an ethnographic field study, we seek to study the status of urban subalterns (informal labor forces) in Sanandaj and its suburbs in order to show a corner of the mechanism of falling into the subordination status and how to face this mechanism. We have also sought to formulate a concept that would explain the situation of the subordinate citizens of Sanandji and especially the informal labor force. Data collection has been done based on field research techniques including observations, conversations and participation or presence in daily life and library studies. Our conceptual lens is based on the concepts of Assef Bayat, Michel Foucault, Mbembe and Standing. This study shows that the subjugation mechanism has fueled citizens to fall into the abyss of subjugation and peripheralization through widespread dispossession of citizens in the form of historical/economic and social policies and programs. This research shows how the generation of biopower encourages the subjugation of citizens and how it threatens the life and work of the workforce even in the informal sector

Keywords

Subordination
Mechanism
Dispossession
Ethnography
Informal life
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer, Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Trans. By Daniel Heller-Roazen. California: Stanford University Press.
ایزدی‌جیران، اصغر (1402). رویارویی متن‌نشینان و حاشیه‌نشینان: نژادگرایی فرهنگی در تبریز. فصلنامۀ توسعه اجتماعی، 18(2)، 132-107.
Atkinson, P. & Hammersly, M. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in Practice, London: Tavistock.
بن‌سعید، دنیل (1400). سلب‌مالکیت‌شدگان (هومن حسین‌زاده، مترجم). تهران: نگاه.
Bayat, A. (2010). Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East, Amsterdam University Press.
بیات، آصف (1397). سیاست‌های خیابانی؛ جنبش تهی‌دستان در ایران (سیداسدالله نبوی‌چاشمی، مترجم).تهران: شیرازه.
Bayat, A. (2010). Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East, Amsterdam University Press.
پرلمن، جانیس (1397). فاولا: چهار دهه زندگی بیمناک در سکونتگاه‌های غیررسمی ریودوژانیرو (کیومرث ایران‌دوست و گلایول مکرونی، مترجمان). سنندج: دانشگاه کردستان.
Bonefeld, W. (2001). The permanence of primitive accumulation: Commodity fetishism and social constitution. The Commoner 2. Available (consulted 24 April 2016) at: http://www.commoner.org.uk/?p=5
خیراللهی، علیرضا (1397). کارگران بی‌طبقه، توان چانه‌زنی کارگران در ایران پس از انقلاب، تهران: آگاه.
Bojan, Dercan, Milka, Bubalo-Zivkovic, Milica, Solarevic, Dejan, sabic (2017). Living on the border: social indicators of life quality in Srem border region (Vojvodina, Serbia). Geographica Pannonica, 21(1), 26–42.
صادقی، فاطمه، مالجو، محمد، سلامت، حسام، افشار، فروزان، حیدری، آرش و روزخوش، محمد (1399). شکاف‌های اجتماعی در ایران، تهران: پژوهشگاه فرهنگ هنر و ارتباطات.
De Angelis, M. (2007). The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global Capital. London: Pluto.
صفری، کیهان (1402). مکانیسم بازار و قدرت بر شهر: فرودست‌سازی به مدد سلب‌مالکیت از شهروندان. مطالعات جامعه‌شناختی (نامۀ علوم اجتماعی)، 30 (2)، 184-165.
De Angelis, M. (2007). The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global Capital. London: Pluto.
صفری، کیهان و عباس‌زاده، محمد (1401). سیالیت معاش: فرودستان و تقلا برای بودن. مجلۀ مسائل اجتماعی ایران، 13(1)، 86-69.
Dolcerocca, A. & Coriat, B. (2015). Commons and the public domain: A review article and a tentative reshlfearch agenda. Review of Radical Political Economics 48(1): 127–139.
فلیک، اووه (1397). درآمدی بر روش کیفی (هادی جلیلی، مترجم). تهران: نی.
Hardt, M. & Negri, A. (2009). Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
کاتسکو، آدام (1401). اهریمنان نئولیبرالیسم (در باب الهیات سیاسی سرمایۀ متأخر). ترجمۀ هومن کاسبی، تهران: نگاه.
Harvey, D. (2003). The New Imperialism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
کلاین، نائومی (1395). دکترین شوک: ظهور سرمایه‌داری فاجعه ( مهرداد شهابی و میرمحمود نبوی، مترجمان). تهران: کتاب آمه.
Harvey, D. (2006). Neo-liberalism as creative destruction. Geografiska Annaler, 88 B (2): 145–158.
لاجوردی، هاله (1388)، زندگی روزمره در ایران مدرن، با تأمل بر سینمای ایران. تهران: ثالث.
Harvey, D. (2014). Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
مالجو، محمد (1399). تاراج نهان: سلب‌مالکیت از نیروهای کار در اثر تورم در ایران. تهران: آگاه.
Mbembe, Achille (2019). Necropolitics. Durham: Duke University Press.
مدنی‌قهفرخی، سعید (1394). ضرورت مبارزه با پدیده فقر و نابرابری در ایران. تهران: آگاه.
Mohammadpour, Ahmad (2023). “Blood for bread: Necro-labor, nonsovereign bodies, and the state of exception in Rojhelat.” American Anthropologist, 1–12. https://doi.org/12.1111/aman.13241
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer, Sovereign Power and Bare Life. Trans. By Daniel Heller-Roazen. California: Stanford University Press.
Plummer, Ken (2010). Documents of Life: An Invitation to a Critical Humanism. SAGE Publications
Atkinson, P. & Hammersly, M. (2007). Ethnography: Principles in Practice, London: Tavistock.
Rubben, Ton & Jeffery, Sluka (2012). Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader. MA: Blackwell.
Bayat, A. (2010). Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East, Amsterdam University Press.
Scheper Hughes, N. (1992). Death without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bayat, A. (2010). Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East, Amsterdam University Press.
Sanjek, R. (1990). “The Secret Life of Fieldnotes, in Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology, edited by R Sanjek”, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, pp. 187-270.
Bonefeld, W. (2001). The permanence of primitive accumulation: Commodity fetishism and social constitution. The Commoner 2. Available (consulted 24 April 2016) at: http://www.commoner.org.uk/?p=5
Sassen, S. (2010). The return of primitive accumulation. In: Lawson G, Armbruster C and Cox M (eds) The Global 1989: Continuity and Change in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.51–75.
Bojan, Dercan, Milka, Bubalo-Zivkovic, Milica, Solarevic, Dejan, sabic (2017). Living on the border: social indicators of life quality in Srem border region (Vojvodina, Serbia). Geographica Pannonica, 21(1), 26–42.
Soleimani, Kamal & Mohammadpour, Ahmad (2023). “The Everydayness of Spectacle Violence under the Islamic Republic: ‘Fire at Will.’” Security Dialogue. https://doi.org/12.1122/22622126031126624
De Angelis, M. (2007). The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global Capital. London: Pluto.
Standing, Guy (2011). The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. Bloomsbury Academic Press.
De Angelis, M. (2007). The Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global Capital. London: Pluto.
Rubben, T. & J. Sluka (2012). Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader, MA: Blackwell.
Dolcerocca, A. & Coriat, B. (2015). Commons and the public domain: A review article and a tentative reshlfearch agenda. Review of Radical Political Economics 48(1): 127–139.
Victoria, Ceres (2011). Social suffering and the embodiment of the world: contributions from anthropology, RECIIS – R. Eletr. de Com. Inf. Inov. Saúde. Rio de Janeiro5(4), 3-13. DOI:10.3395/reciis. v5i4.552en
Hardt, M. & Negri, A. (2009). Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.
Bayat, Asef (2017). Street politics (poor people’s movements in Iran). Translated by Seyyed Asadollah Nabavi Chashmi, Tehran: Shirazeh Publications. (in Persian)
Harvey, D. (2003). The New Imperialism. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Ben Said, Daniel (2021). The dispossessed. Translated by Homan Hosseinzadeh. Tehran: Negah publishing house. (in Persian)
Harvey, D. (2006). Neo-liberalism as creative destruction. Geografiska Annaler, 88 B (2): 145–158.
Flick, Oveh (2017). An introduction to the qualitative method, translated by Hadi Jalili, Tehran, Ney Publishing. (in Persian)
Harvey, D. (2014). Seventeen Contradictions and the End of Capitalism. New York: Oxford University Press.
Izadi-jiran, Asghar (2023). Confrontation of text dwellers and marginal dwellers: cultural racism in Tabriz. Social Development Quarterly, 18(2), 107-132. (in Persian)
Mbembe, Achille (2019). Necropolitics. Durham: Duke University Press.
Katsko, Adam (2022). Demons of neoliberalism (about the political theology of late capitalism). Translated by Homan Kasbi. Tehran: Negah publishing house. (in Persian)
Mohammadpour, Ahmad (2023). “Blood for bread: Necro-labor, nonsovereign bodies, and the state of exception in Rojhelat.” American Anthropologist, 1–12. https://doi.org/12.1111/aman.13241
Khairollahi, Alireza (2017). Classless Workers, Bargaining Power of Workers in Iran after the Revolution, Tehran: Aghat Publications. (in Persian)
Plummer, Ken (2010). Documents of Life: An Invitation to a Critical Humanism. SAGE Publications
Klein, Naomi (2015). Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, translated by Mehrdad Shahabi and Mir Mahmoud Nabavi, Tehran: Ame Kitab. (in Persian)
Rubben, Ton & Jeffery, Sluka (2012). Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader. MA: Blackwell.
Lajvardi, Hale (2008). Daily life in modern Iran, with reflections on Iranian cinema, salesspublication. (in Persian)
Scheper Hughes, N. (1992). Death without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Madani Ghafarakhi, Saeed (2014). The necessity of combating the phenomenon of poverty and inequality in Iran, Tehran: Aghat Publications.
Sanjek, R. (1990). “The Secret Life of Fieldnotes, in Fieldnotes: The Makings of Anthropology, edited by R Sanjek”, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, pp. 187-270.
Maljoo, Mohammad (2019). Extortion hidden, Expropriation of workers due to inflation in Iran. Tehran: Aghaz Publications. (in Persian)
Sassen, S. (2010). The return of primitive accumulation. In: Lawson G, Armbruster C and Cox M (eds) The Global 1989: Continuity and Change in World Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.51–75.
Perlman, J. (2010). Favelah: Four decaades of living on the in rio de janeiro. Translated by K. Irandoost & G. Makrooni. Sanandaj: University of Kurdistan Press. (in Persian)
Soleimani, Kamal & Mohammadpour, Ahmad (2023). “The Everydayness of Spectacle Violence under the Islamic Republic: ‘Fire at Will.’” Security Dialogue. https://doi.org/12.1122/22622126031126624
Sadeghi, Fatemeh, Maljoo, Mohammad, Salamat, Hessam, Afshar, Forozan, Heydari, Arash and Roozkhosh, Mohammad (2019). Social gaps in Iran, Tehran: Culture, Art and Communication Research Institute Publications. (in Persian)
Standing, Guy (2011). The Precariat: The New Dangerous Class. Bloomsbury Academic Press.
Safari, Keyhan (2023). Market mechanism and power over the city: subjugation through expropriation of citizens. Sociological Studies (Journal of Social Sciences), 30(2), 165-184. (in Persian)
Rubben, T. & J. Sluka (2012). Ethnographic Fieldwork: An Anthropological Reader, MA: Blackwell.
Safari, Keyhan & Abbaszadeh, Mohammad (2023). Livelihood fluidity: subjugation and struggle to be. Journal of Iranian Social Issues, 13(1), 69-86. (in Persian)
Victoria, Ceres (2011). Social suffering and the embodiment of the world: contributions from anthropology, RECIIS – R. Eletr. de Com. Inf. Inov. Saúde. Rio de Janeiro5(4), 3-13. DOI:10.3395/reciis. v5i4.552en

  • Receive Date 08 June 2026
  • Publish Date 08 June 2026