| 1. |
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| 2. |
- Farahani, Ilia
(författare)
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Capitalist urbanization in the post-neoliberal and de-globalizing world economy: A minor critical engagement with VIP-Urbanism literature
- 2024
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Ingår i: Human Geography. - 1942-7786.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The special issue “Contesting VIP Urbanism” includes timely analytical interventions to contest an increasing tendency to luxury investments in many capitalist cities of the past decades. This essay raises some theoretical and empirical questions concerning the present state of globalization and neoliberalism as two defining characteristics of an era of the global capitalist economy in which both the tendency toward VIP-Urbanism and the approaches criticizing it arise. It aims to extend the discussion on contesting the tendency toward VIP-Urbanism by drawing attention to questions regarding the role of macroeconomic structural forces that enable or hinder urban governance. In response to the changing historical context, the essay proposes developing a multi-scalar and inter-sectoral framework, which also includes reintroducing the national level into urban geographic inquiry to contextualize micro dynamics of investments over individual land plots by individual investors.
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| 3. |
- Farahani, Ilia, et al.
(författare)
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Financialisation of Built Environments: Urban Governance, Social Geographies, and Sustainability
- 2016
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper is about the ways in which financialisation of built environments hasimpacted upon the politics, social constitution and sustainability of cities. We focus primarily on financialisation of housing, and do so from the methodologicalperspective of variegated financialisation: as a generic process that contextually coevolves with related processes such as neoliberalisation and polarisation,encompassing variegated sets of institutions and social relations. Financialisation is a process whereby privatisation, commodification and securitisation of resources and elements of (built) environments allow for the penetration of financial control and decision-making power into the fabric of societies and environments. Housing is financialised when it is treated above all as a financial asset, i.e. for its exchange value, rather than for its use value. We conclude that financialisation of housing has had severely adverse impacts on democracy, social cohesion and sustainability. Policies for containing financialisation of housing need to include measures to decommodify housing and urban space more generally, institutionalise floors and ceilings on income and wealth, deepen democracy and use-value-oriented decisionmaking, and replace market-fundamentalist ideology with egalitarian ideas that recognise our interdependence, how we mutually constitute one another, how we aredependent upon and owe solidarity to others.
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| 4. |
- Farahani, Ilia
(författare)
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Iran's First Public Housing Program, What Went Wrong?
- 2015
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper investigates the institutional settings for Iran’s first public housing program called Mehr Housing Project, designed to provide housing for lowest 10% of the population. While the project was initiated to improve the housing options for the low-income families, the outcomes after 8 years beg to differ. The figures indicate that out of promised 1,400,000 units, only around 500,000 were built and new comers are mainly speculators, estate agents, some middle class families, and in some case smugglers and criminals. By utilizing a structuralist approach in the realm of political economy of space, the paper explores the politico-economic drivers behind the failure of the project. Thus, it goes beyond the conventional critiques of speculation, liquidity and public expenses and highlights the role of the state as a private owner and crisis in industrial sector (incl. low productivity), which has led to massive individual investments on construction incl. housing development.
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| 5. |
- Farahani, Ilia
(författare)
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Land rent, capital, rate of profit : A critique of Harvey’s model of urban land rent
- 2021
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study critically evaluates David Harvey’s model of urban land rent and its centrality in his explanation of the material forces that underlie and limit urban land policies, strategies, planning decisions, and investment choices. Harvey emphasizes structural forces of capital in relating economic urbanization processes to uneven patterns of capitalist development, recurrent economic crises of overaccumulation, and the need to produce spaces of accumulation to absorb surplus capital that creates crises. He argues that the movement of capital (i.e., the mass of new investments) drives urbanization processes and that land rent constitutes a barrier to the free movement of capital from the primary circuit (i.e., productive investments) to the secondary circuit of capital (i.e., investments in built environments) and arises due to monopoly power relations on land markets. Harvey’s Spatial Monopoly Model of Land Rent (SMLR) is empirically and theoretically compared with a proposed Turbulent Inter-Sectoral Model of Land Rent (TILR). The TILR argues that capital moves to sectors with excess (i.e., above-normal) rates of return. The inter-sectoral and intra-sectoral excess rates of return constitute land rent, and turbulent inter-sectoral competition maintains excess rates of return in rent-bearing sectors. The empirical portion of the monograph encompasses a bibliometric study of rent research and three empirical studies: the first two empirical studies compare the SMLR and the TILR in the US and Swedish housing and construction sectors using seminal case studies by Harvey and Eric Clark. The third study operationalizes the TILR on the Iranian housing sector.It is argued that the SMLR suffers from the following theory-data anomalies: 1) above and beyond a monopoly pricing mechanism, the model offers limited analytical tools for empirical research on rent rates, ceilings, and magnitudes; 2) the model offers inadequate economic mechanisms for macro-level patterns of rent creation and appropriation; 3) it offers an inadequate explanation for the historical contingency of macro and micro-level rent creation and appropriation; 4) it breaks with its structural starting points and does not offer a consistently endogenous structural analysis of rent creation and appropriation. In analyzing the relation between the rate of profit in manufacturing and construction sectors determining land rent, the TILR explains the source of rent with reference to fluctuations of profit rates rather than the monopoly pricing mechanism (the SMLR’s crucial method). The TILR argues that long-term national (economic) structures, indicated by the falling rate of manufacturing (and aggregate) profit, determine the rate and ceiling of rent. The TILR improves on the SMLR by incorporating alternative analytical tools to measure and explain rent rates, ceilings, and magnitudes and resolves its theory-data anomalies by bringing in the concept of absolute rent, logically dismissed by Harvey and Harvey-inspired urban economic geographers. The concept of absolute rent is inconsistent with core assumptions of the SMLR’s underlying theory of monopolistic competition, which relies on exogenous barriers to the free movement of capital to explain excess rates of return. That hinders the SMLR from incorporating the TILR’s resolutions to the anomalies without inflicting further theoretical tensions. The TILR is rooted in an alternative interpretation of Marx’s economic theory recently revived and advanced by Anwar Shaikh as the theory of turbulent competition. This theory allows the TILR to consistently incorporate the concept of absolute rent, integrate national economic trends and local economic relations, and provide a consistently endogenous structural explanation of rent creation and appropriation.
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| 6. |
- Farahani, Ilia
(författare)
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Land Rent, Crisis Theories, and Radical Geography
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The question of rent as a political economic driver of urban change is not new to radical geography. Yet, it seems curious that while Differential Rents are considered pertinent, absolute rent is almost entirely replaced by (class-)monopoly rent. In Marxian political economy there exist at least two distinctive traditions regarding economic crisis theory. First is Monopoly Capitalism School that is mainly designed by Sweezy from Bortkiewicz’s neo-Ricardian critique of Marx. And the second is the LTRPF School, which refers directly to Marx’s critique of Ricardo. While the latter puts the emphasis on profitability and real competition, the former stresses on effective demand and monopoly. This paper presents a literature review of these two traditions in radical geography and claims that while Monopoly Capitalism has been dominant in radical geography literature, the LTRPF (unlike other disciplines, incl. economic history and economics) has been non-existent in the field. I will further argue that the tendency to question the relevance of absolute rent lies in which of the above-mentioned traditions one would take. The paper’s final argument is that taking either of these two traditions is not arbitrary or a matter of inquisition, it comes with significant implications in terms of practice.
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| 7. |
- Farahani, Ilia
(författare)
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Marx, Marxian geography, and rent theory
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The numerous interpretations of Marx’s economic theory can be usefully divided in two broad classes: real competition theory and monopolistic competition theory. Marxian geographers (inspired by Harvey) have applied the latter without discussing why they ignore the former. The problem is particularly salient when it comes to rent theory. Geographers following Harvey have famously ignored Marx’s absolute rent, a type of rent that accrues to the landowner through deferential profitability between sectors. Instead, they applied a type formulated by Harvey, namely class-monopoly rent. The problem with this type is that it does not address any question regarding the magnitude or the rate of the rent; nor does it point to any ceiling of the rent. Marx’s absolute rent is devised exactly to address such questions. Harveyan geographers claim that absolute rent is not needed for spatial research, i.e. it is empirically irrelevant. The present study refutes such claims and aims to explore the reasons and consequences of ignoring the concept of absolute rent in Harveyan geography. It seems ignoring absolute rent comes as a matter of course once Harveyans have chosen their economic theory. More importantly, the paper argues, this theoretical choice comes with practical implications: absolute rent indicates the social struggle over land is rooted in dynamics of capitalist development and competition, while class-monopoly rent indicates it is rooted in the dynamics of finance capital and monopolistic competition.
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| 8. |
- Farahani, Ilia, et al.
(författare)
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Public housing, intersectoral competition, and urban ground rent: Iran’s first public housing program that never was
- 2021
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Ingår i: Human Geography. - : SAGE Publications. - 1942-7786 .- 2633-674X. ; 14:1, s. 45-61
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper investigates the structural political economic drivers of the housing market in urban Iran and the ways in which social and economic dynamics of the housing sector are rooted in peculiarities of Iranian capitalism, characterized by a relatively small public economy, low productivity of capital, and an underdeveloped financial system. The paper examines these processes and mechanisms in the light of the illustrative case of the country’s first and largest state-led housing program, the Mehr Housing Program (MHP). The paper argues that the program’s failure is due primarily to the state’s market-oriented approach toward housing. The MHP’s units were sold at their market prices, and the state subsidized the land to the developers with low rent, facilitating investments. Utilizing an intersectoral and multi-scalar analytical framework, we further argue that what drives the investment is absolute ground rent present in the housing sector due to its labor-intensive character. The high level of rent is due to persistently low profitability in the manufacturing sector and, subsequently, excess profits in construction and housing. Thus, rent-seeking investors tend to invest in housing. These peculiarities of the Iranian economy determined the trajectory and thefailure of the MHP as a public housing initiative.
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| 9. |
- Farahani, Ilia
(författare)
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Session M90: Marxism(s) in Geographic and Sustainability Research
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Since the beginning of the Great Recession of 2008, we are witnessing a deepening of social and ecological crises. As a transdisciplinary research program, with a powerful critique of capitalist economy at its core, there is little surprise that we witness an ever-increasing body of literature of Marxist contributions to the fields of (among others) urban and sustainability studies following the crisis. This impressive contribution has certainly not been monolithic. Therefore, it is important to have an intellectual debate about the different understanding of Marx’s economic theory and their different implications for the resistance in the face of the triple (economic, social/urban, and ecological) crises.This session invites critical exploration of themes such as the following:- Attempts at classifying different Marxisms in the fields of urban geography and sustainability studies;- Critical appreciation of the legacy of celebrated Marxists in these fields;- The implications of different Marxist approaches for activism and social movements in urban and sustainability issues;- Innovative application of Marxian approaches and concepts in urban and sustainability studies.This stream of sessions comprises of two panel sessions and one paper session.
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| 10. |
- Farahani, Ilia
(författare)
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Vanished in gaps, vanquished in rifts : the social ecology of urban spatial change in a working class residential area, Peykan-Shahr, Tehran, Iran
- 2013
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Ingår i: Journal of Political Ecology. - 1073-0451. ; 20, s. 395-412
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The article aims to understand the forms and processes of socio-ecological changes following sociogeographicaldislocation of workers in a working-class neighborhood (Peykan-Shahr) in Iran. The articleintegrates theories of gentrification and metabolic rift. Existing studies on urbanization in Iran refute thepossibility of gentrification. This study, in contrast, by drawing attention to peculiarities of the capitalisteconomy in Iran, adapts the basic economic mechanisms of gentrification such as the rent/value gap and theconcept of absolute rent, concluding that Peykan-Shahr is indeed in a process of gentrification. The theory ofmetabolic rift adds theoretical dimensions and complexity to the analysis and provides a richer understandingof the case. Grounded in Marx's labor theory of value, the analysis shows that by mediating the exploitation oflabor/nature by capital through displacing workers from their houses, gentrification in Peykan-Shahr hascaused a socio-ecological metabolic rift in terms of labor reproduction and deterioration of labor power.
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| 11. |
- Lund Hansen, Anders, et al.
(författare)
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Corona hotar förvärra svenska bostadskrisen : 108 forskare: Sveriges regering och kommuner måste förhindra en katastrof
- 2020
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Ingår i: Aftonbladet. - 1103-9000.
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Tidskriftsartikel (populärvet., debatt m.m.)abstract
- DEBATE. Far from everyone who lives in Sweden has a secure housing situation. According to the National Board of Health and Welfare's latest national survey of 2017, there are about 33,000 homeless people in the country. A significant proportion of them are children. Due to the ongoing corona pandemic, many households are now threatened by unemployment and a deteriorating economy. If the state and municipalities do not act resolutely, there is an imminent risk that the housing crisis will deepen with devastating consequences for the individual as well as for society at large.
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| 12. |
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| 13. |
- Yousefi, Shadi, et al.
(författare)
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Socio-spatial inequality in Tehran, a structural explanation
- 2019
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The study presents a political economic analysis of socio-spatial inequality in Tehran focusing on four sectors of social reproduction, namely, housing, healthcare, education, and transportation. The existing analyses of socio-spatial inequality in Tehran by Iranian social scientists see the problem as a technical matter and criticize e.g. bad planning, poor policy-making, undemocratic state, and corruption. Political economic structures behind the inequalities, however, have not been addressed. Two theoretical models are discussed. Model 1 is derived from the existing analyses by prominent Iranian social scientists discussed above. Model 2 is derived from the works by political economic geographers such as David Harvey. The paper maintains that the urbanization processes, aside from being planetary in character, are highly variegated in historical and geographical contexts. The paper, therefore, proposes a dialectical approach for analysis. Using a modified version of Model 2, the paper argues socio-spatial inequality in the city is rooted in peculiarities of Iranian capitalism. Low productivity in the manufacturing sector requires lowering the value of labor power in order to maintain profit. Prolonging the working day and cutting wages have reached their biophysical limits for the labor and investment in urban space and built environments is a resulting strategy for the rent-seeking capitalists. Iranian marketized state performs as a facilitator (rather than a regulator) in urbanization process. The study also discusses the role of luxury market in neutralizing the anticipated negative feedback mechanism of low social demand.
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| 14. |
- Yousefi, Shadi, et al.
(författare)
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Spatial inequality in Tehran, a structural explanation
- 2022
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Ingår i: Urban Research & Practice. - : Informa UK Limited. - 1753-5069 .- 1753-5077. ; 15:1, s. 25-46
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The study presents a political economic analysis of spatial inequality in Tehran focusing on four sectors of social reproduction, namely, housing, healthcare, education, and transportation. The study argues that spatial inequality is rooted in the peculiarities of Iranian capitalism. Struggling with low productivity, the manufacturing sector needs wages to remain low and unemployment to remain high in order to maintain profits. Bringing urban amenities and resources into the market is the second strategy, a process facilitated by the state. The study also discusses the role of the luxury market in neutralising the anticipated negative feedback mechanism of low effective demand.
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