Living in the Margin An Ethnography on the daily life of the suburbs of Saeedabad neighborhood of Tehran

The article is an account of ethnographic study about daily life in two suburban settlements in Tehran; a phenomenological exploration about the living experiences of their inhabitants. These settlements, known publicly as "colonies" and located in the Saeedabad neighborhood of the Shadabad. Findings show that the special living conditions in these colonies resulted in convergence of spatial and temporal boundaries in arenas such as employment, education and free time of the residents. The special conditions are particularly due to the densely populated residential context of the colonies, limited living space, lack of minimum amenities, and apparent poverty of the resident households. Confrontation with external formal or informal, individual or institutional charities, is the only situation which manifests unanimity and alliance of the residents over their inferior identities. In fact, social relations between them are based more on the acquisition of resources than on urban division of labor.  Power relations and hierarchy of authority more than anything is determined by variables like gender and being breadwinner; And the most important principle governing formal relations is ownership and property. The perceptions of the colonies of Saeedabad conveys residents perceive their life as isolated from the city; somewhere in border- city and non-city.