Unjustified Life and Subjectivity: A Critical Study of Tenancy in Isfahan City

Human beings have numerous needs and try to satisfy them in different ways. One of their most important needs is shelter. Having a shelter is very important since having a proper house has been stated as a right for every Iranian family in the 31st principle of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Also, providing a minimum shelter for all Iranian citizens has been considered as the duty of the government in the 29th and 42nd principles of the constitution. Housing has an important role in the economy of a country and since a house is not transportable, it has a capital value that can affect any country’s development. Owning a house has become more difficult in recent years due to economic fluctuations and households’ decreased purchasing power. Hence, renting a house has become a common phenomenon. In fact, both the number of tenants and even duration of renting are increasing. Meanwhile, each social class may be involved in different levels of intensity related to this social problem. Therefore, it can be said that the difficulties imposed on the middle- and lower-class households have more intensities. This procedure is more prominent in larger cities, especially in Esfahan where new marginal towns are being formed. Accordingly, this study aimed to investigate the role of unequal political and economic relations in this process and show the issues and complications of the mentioned groups of people.  

The present research followed the method of critical ethnography with Carspecken's approach. Critical ethnography has been widely used as a study method for dealing with the issues of low-income groups in recent years. This approach aims at redefining some social situations and phenomena by revealing the hidden hypotheses and utilizing the principles of critical theories with the aim of making a link between social phenomena and socio-historical events.Carspecken's 5-stage approach starts with non-participatory field observations so that the researcher first acts as an anonymous observer in the research field and makes initial notes according to his/her observations. The second step is to do a prior structural analysis. In this stage, the researcher organizes his/her in-filed observations and provides an initial analysis of them. He/she raises his/her interpretations in the form of basic categories by using an etic approach and then prepares the conditions to enter the 3rd stage that involves a clear conversation without intermediaries. In this stage, the researcher enters the field again by informing the participants. The second step in this stage is gathering information from the subjects’ ideas and views obtained from personal interviews. The extracted data from these interviews can verify or reject the researcher’s knowledge obtained in the former steps. The 4th and 5th stages are followed together through an etic approach. In these 2 stages, the data obtained via available theories and intersystem relations are analyzed. Accordingly, after conducting primary studies based on the etic approach, filed investigations, initial observations, and identification of tenants in this research, 19 tenants were chosen for a deep interview through an emic approach. Then, the gathered data were coded. The main categories included political and economic inequalities, trading in the housing market, inefficient tax system, economic and political de-subjectifications, tenant merchandising, unequal life and subjectivity, experience of an added class gap, and fear and hope of economic protest.

   The present study sought to investigate the situation of tenants throughout Esfahan City from a critical view. Renting is not a new phenomenon, but a struggle for the households, most of whom are from the middle class and have no power for buying a house. It is not a choice for experiencing different houses, but a coercion for the middle-class people. It is a permanent coercion that destroys some family members’ personal development opportunities. Since the families’ incomes are mostly paid for rent day after day, this situation makes them less capable for long-term planning. The biggest concerns imposed on tenants are financial worries and economic fluctuations, unbalanced average income and everyday expenses, as well as the lack of management in the housing sector. Since political affairs affect people’s lives, along with economic affairs, especially more intensely in developing societies, tenants are more involved in the implacability of life capacities. In fact, when both economic and political fields play roles to decrease citizens’ welfare, people fall by default at a distance from their decision-making fields. These people usually get a defensive position in response and decrease their needs though suffering from their social class decline anyway. The results in this study showed that economic fluctuations had disrupted Esfahani tenants’ lives, which were fluctuating themselves like financial markets. Their life qualities had decreased, while they were experiencing an increasing class gap. As a result, marginal living around big cities was being increasingly formed.