Introduction to the Department of Urban and Regional Studies
The Urban and Regional Studies Department is an academic and research entity affiliated with the Institute for Social and Cultural Studies at the University of Tehran. With several decades of active engagement, it has established a distinguished presence in Iran’s academic landscape as a center for critical analysis and conceptualization of socio-spatial processes. Grounded in the intellectual traditions of the social sciences, the group provides a platform for scholarly discourse and knowledge production concerning the complex transformations shaping urban and regional landscapes in contemporary Iran.
The Department’s activities converge around three core domains: urban studies, regional analysis, and spatial policy-making. Accordingly, its research endeavors extend beyond the mere physical form of cities to encompass social practices, power relations, mechanisms of spatial inequality, and the cultural-economic dynamics that emerge, are reproduced, or contested within urban and peripheral geographies.
Over the years, through collaboration with renowned scholars from the University of Tehran and other academic institutions, and by engaging promising young researchers, the Department has conducted extensive studies on key topics such as urban poverty analysis, housing policy, participatory planning, spatial justice, internal migration, regional development, and urban resilience to socio-environmental crises. Many of these research projects have been carried out in coordination with executive bodies, NGOs, and civil society organizations, thereby reinforcing the interface between academic inquiry and lived social experience.
Department Objectives:
- Generating and contextualizing indigenous theoretical frameworks on space, city, and region
- Critiquing reductionist and technocratic paradigms in urban policy-making
- Promoting spatial justice and sustainable development in urban and regional planning
- Conducting comparative research on urban transformation in Iran and the Global South
- Educating a new generation of critical researchers, planners, and social actors
Ultimately, the Urban and Regional Studies Department aspires to foster interdisciplinary exchange and deepen theoretical and empirical understanding of human spatiality in Iran. It seeks to play a constructive role in shaping informed public discourse and evidence-based policy-making concerning urban and regional challenges.
