The phenomenon of space in informal settlements: the lived experience of Imam Hassan mojtaba Bazaar in Nasimshahr (Akbarabad) (1986- 2016)

- Creation of fields of social participation requires an understanding of the capabilities of these communities.
- The theoretical approach of phenomenological research and its experimental planning is qualitative.
- From the point of view of the lived experience of the studied social group, the space expands until it provides livelihood.
- Construction of flexible spaces is required to meet daily needs.

According to official documents, the population of informal settlements in the country has increased to more than twice as much in the ten years between 2003 and 2013, from 4.5 million to 12 million. There have been many studies on this urban phenomenon in the country that have influenced government policies and plans, ranging from destruction of the settlements to their reorganization. These studies have investigated the causes and factors concerning the formation of these settlements mainly with quantitative and sometimes with qualitative research methods, indicating social harms and assessing the needs for services. However, many of these studies have relied on outdated existing theories and inherent pre-judgements. This research attempts to understand the dynamics of resident social groups with respect to the informal urban spaces of these settlements. This aim is pursued through attempts to learn about the residents’ ability to overcome urban poverty and the ways they organize their daily lives, given the shortcomings of the research methodology.
 The purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of space from the perspective of the lived experience of the inhabitants of informal settlements and to answer the central question of how this has shaped the lives of those who live there.  
 Theoretical Framework
The theoretical approach of this phenomenological research and its empirical planning are qualitative. This approach has made it possible to understand the phenomenon under investigation from the perspective of the lived experience of the residents and has helped develop the methods of observation, enquiry, narrative analysis, and theme extraction. Theories are considered as a tool for analysis of the findings of this research and support the narratives for understanding and reflecting the dynamics of social-livelihood groups with respect to the informal urban space of Akbar Abad, Iran. In line with this approach, beyond the physical geography of the place, this research investigates the lived fabric considering the symbolic meanings and importance of places, as reflected in the theoretical writings of human geographers and urbanists such as Massey (1994). Accordingly, the reciprocal interaction between the built environment, social space, and actors’ agency, with imagined, lived, and perceived spaces, results in the construction of new lived and perceived spaces.

Most of the previous studies have been conducted through survey questionnaires and are not profound enough to identify the relationship between residents and where they live. Therefore, based on the phenomenological theoretical framework on informal settlements, the research design involved qualitative methods of data collection, including in-depth semi-structured interviews, participatory observation, and purposeful sampling. The subject of the case study was Nasimshahr (Akbarabad), 15 km southeast of Tehran. The researcher lived in this city for a while and came to a general understanding of the relationship between space and the inhabitants’ lives. The observations, interviews, and sampling were carried out at three spatial levels. These included Nasimshahr as the first level, the area within ​​this city named Akbarabad as the middle level, and the urban space of Imam Hassan Mojtaba Bazaar (known as kooche tolidi (‘manufacturers’ alley’)) as the micro level. The socio-economic group of clothing producers was chosen as the unit of analysis. The data obtained on the residents’ lived experience were combined with available census data. A one-year intermittent residency within the scope of the study area provided the researcher with an opportunity to get closer to the social group of interest, and a different understanding of the presuppositions concerning the subject was formed through participatory observation.

 In this research, it was found that understanding the phenomenon of space in Nasimshahr is not possible without an understanding of the interaction between socio-livelihood groups with socio- physical space. At the beginning of the formation of these settlements in the 1980s, individual agency along with the support of family and kinship networks played a key role in the generation of a private space (home) incorporating any means of livelihood. After that, until the late 1990s, the collective movement that is crystallized in the livelihood group–which is the focus of this study–took shape through labor, skills, and employment networks. Imam Hassan Mojtaba Bazaar resulted from the events in this period. For twenty years, capital has become more important than availability of labor, skills, and social networks, and physical space is dominating, and limiting, residents’ agency in the organization of the space they can afford to interact with livelihoods. The space of Imam Hassan Bazaar is the pinnacle of residents’ understanding and shaping of space. In this informal market space, clothing manufacturers try to establish a dynamic connection between Tehran and their livelihood and social group and hope that this city will turn into and be recognized as the clothing hub of the country using the opportunities in Nasimshahr. This study contributed to the phenomenological method of understanding space, and the findings are limited to the researcher’s understanding of the participants’ lived experience and life in Nasimshahr.

The preliminary results showed that although economic activities grow in Nasimshahr, as in any other urban region within a metropolitan area, some activities to earn income such as those of brokers, recyclers, street vendors, and producers and sellers of garments assume a particular position. The socio-livelihood group of clothing manufacturers was selected as a research unit for this study due to characteristics such as inclusivity, entrepreneurship, and the ability to move the activity between the living environment (home) and the general environment of the market place. Therefore, Imam Hassan Mojtaba Bazaar, which was formed over time in the interaction with this income and employment generation activity, was studied as the subject of a case study on informal urban spaces.