Interactions between Urban Policies and the Informal Life of the Poor in Urban Space: A Theoretical Model

The purpose of this study is to present a theoretical model of interactions between urban policies and the informal life of the poor in urban space. In this regard, by reviewing and criticizing the theoretical traditions associated with the informal life of the poo, it emphasizes an alternative approach that can transcend the common dualities of formal- informal, structure- agency, and the heroic- troublemaker poor and highlights the spatial dimensions of urban politics regarding the informal life of them. This paper employs documentary method and available archive analysis to present a theoretical model about the dialectical relationship between urban politics and informal life of the poor in Iran. Accordingly, by combining Lefebvre's production theory and Foucault's relational approach to power, The study emphasizes the politics of representation and space organization politics in the triple ratio between the poor, urban politics and urban space, and demonstrate that this relational and consolidated approach can be helpful to understand the interweaving of urban politics and informal life of the poor in Iran. Finally the study shows that the outcome of urban politics about the informal life of the poor is the interaction of the mutual processes of exercising power and resistance, and considering the different types of this interaction is vital in analyzing the power struggles over the presence of the poor in the city.