Urban Poverty in Iran: a Systematic Review

Since 2008 a half of the world population has lived in urban areas. One of the most important aspects of this change is the increase of urban poor population, particularly in developing countries. With the expansion of this phenomenon, we face the process of ' urbanization of poverty'. To understand the factors, process, and outcomes of urban poverty, much research has been conducted in Iran in the last forty years. In the present paper, we attempted to examine the Iranian researchers ' studies on the topic of urban poverty, using the meta-analysis and systematic review. The research results demonstrated that much of the research in the poverty field is done in economics. From the methodology point of view, in Iran quantitative paradigm is the dominant paradigm and urban poverty has been examined from the angle of statistics, number, map, and table as well. Therefore, no one has focused on the voices, narratives, life experiences, and the representations of the process of urban poverty by the poor. Furthermore, the results revealed that the poorer the provinces are, the less research has been done in those areas. In addition, the studies on poverty in Iran have examined this phenomenon from the angle of the structure and not from the angles of agent and action. It is also important to note that the lack of research on poverty amongst children, women, disabled people, and ethnic groups is obvious.