Constructing a Model for Perceiving

Rashidi, Jamal

doi:10.22034/jss.2025.1986366.1752

Constructing a Model for Perceiving "Exclusion/Inclusion" in the Urban Social Policy Regime

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Jamal Rashidi

PH.D. in Social Welfare. Allameh Tabataba'i University

https://doi.org/10.22034/jss.2025.1986366.1752

Abstract

Without addressing urban neoliberalism, mass society, and urban democracy in Iran, it is impossible to provide a valid picture of the regime of urban social policy-making and how voiceless/powerless groups are excluded from the urban policy cycle. A critical insight at the constructive contexts of the city is necessary to make visible the exclusionary mechanisms that have been neglected so far. In this article, with the help of grounded theory, an attempt has been made to construct a model through qualitative and quantitative data collected from lived experience, content analysis, and thematic analysis -for historical data gathering-, secondary data, and existing statistics, and newspaper content, in order to explain how different groups are socially excluded.
The structured state of interdependence between the contexts of “undifferentiated society”, “mass urban democracy” and “neoliberal urban political economy” is the most decisive factor in the urban social policy regime, which generally serves the interests of powerful groups and ignores the needs and requirements of voiceless/powerless groups, thus reproducing and intensifying structured socio-economic inequalities. The weakened civil society and the alignment of urban management interests with the urban ruling class are also the most important features of the urban social policy regime in the Tehran metropolis.

Keywords

Voiceless/powerless groups

urban social policy

urban neoliberalism

social exclusion

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