Coffeehouses (Re)Appropriated: Counterpublics and Cultural Resistance in Tabriz, Iran

• Over the last decade, traditional coffeehouses have attracted increasing interest in the city of Tabriz, Iran, in the contextof consistent state monitoring and restriction of public life—particularly so among non-Persian ethnolinguistic populations.Relying on a combination of ethnographic methods (observations, interviews, and visual documentation), this articleexplores the everyday life of two coffeehouses in Tabriz through a theoretical lens of third place, counterpublics, andeveryday ethics of resistance. Coffeehouses are currently retaining functions as third places; cross-generational venuesfor preserving cultural, artistic, and linguistic identity as well as institutions of social defiance, resting on elaborate ethicalcodes and tacit social agreements. Through mechanisms of everyday ethics and cultural practices re-connecting to localhistory, cultural creativity, and language, insiders are distinguished from outsiders, serving to build trust, security, andsolidarity in the context of Iranian state monitoring and restricted social space.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Annan humaniora -- Övrig annan humaniora (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Other Humanities -- Other Humanities not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi -- Kulturgeografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography -- Human Geography (hsv//eng)

Keyword

coffeehouses

counterpublics

cultural resistance

everyday ethics

Iran

third place

Publication and Content Type

art (subject category)

ref (subject category)