Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Ph.D. Candidate, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran
2
Professor, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran
3
Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tabriz Islamic Art University, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
Introduction
Although the concept of rent is considered a reprehensible phenomenon and contrary to justice and equality in the minds of the general public, today, due to the lack of accurate understanding of the issue of rent and rent-seeking, this phenomenon in urban issues is considered one of the main processes of development affairs. In recent years, it has attracted the attention of scientific circles, especially critical thinkers. According to many specialists in urban affairs in Iran, many of the mechanisms created in Iran’s urban planning system in the 14th century (H-S) were affected by capitalist practices. Despite the efforts made after the Islamic revolution to expand justice in Iran, Iran’s urban development system still has a quasi-capitalist image, and due to the macro-procedures of the capitalist system, the production and distribution of rent has become an irreplaceable part of it. Examining the research about rent in connection with urban issues shows that most of the researches deal with the issue of rent in the city as an example. Each of them analyzes one of the rent-generating processes in the cities from their perspective. It is necessary to carry out a fundamental analysis of the large rent-generating components in the urban planning system. Rent has always been condemned in Islamic thought, and among the opinions of scholars in the field of Islamic justice, Allameh Tabatabai’s theory of credit perceptions, with its methodical analytical method, has created a suitable field for the root analysis of the rent-seeking phenomenon. In this regard, the current research aims to present the criteria of the non-rental urban planning model based on Islamic thought and culture.
Materials and Methods
The current research, using qualitative research methods, seeks to gain a comprehensive understanding of the issue of rent-seeking in Iran’s urban development, based on a critical approach, and is considered a type of fundamental-developmental research. At first, by identifying the problem of rent generation as one of the basic foundations of urban planning systems affected by capitalist macro-procedures, which has a significant impact on the urban development of the present era, the present research tries to identify the main components of rent production in Iran’s urban planning system. Therefore, in this regard, the meta-analysis method was used and in the present research, after examining the sources that were somehow related to the issues in the field of rent generation in Iran’s urban planning system, 108 articles were examined and registered more than 2000 open codes on these articles. In the next stage of the current research, by converting open codes into basic themes, using the method of logical reasoning analysis, the main components of rent generation in Iran’s urban planning system were extracted and then, on this basis, using the opinions of thinkers, a critical approach, based on the method of exploratory research and the method of analyzing logical reasoning, by delving into reliable sources such as articles, books, documents, and plans, for a comprehensive understanding of the production of rant phenomenon, identified the macro-credits of the urban development system affected by capitalism. Then, to make a comparative comparison and provide alternative solutions, the present research plans the macro components of anti-rental urbanization derived from Islamic thought, based on Islamic culture, against the rent-generating urbanization system influenced by capitalism.
Findings
The basic themes and main credits related to the phenomenon of rent generation in Iran’s urban planning system can be investigated in three main urban planning sub-systems, including the cultural-social system of the city, the urban management system, and the urban planning and development system. Based on this, the main credits in the cultural-social system of the city are the impossibility of effective protest against the decisions of the city management, the weak civil society in the city, the security of the space, the lack of proper support of laws and structures to the people against rent-seeking, the public’s lack of knowledge about development plans and programs, the low participation of people in the process of preparing development plans and programs, the high dependence of development decisions on the personal taste of officials, top-down development in contrast to the popularization of development decisions and measures, little transparency in urban development decisions, little participation of cooperatives and people’s groups in the city development process and failure to address urban development issues to the main needs of the city’s people. Moreover, the main credits of the urban management system are: the influence of different groups with power and wealth in determining projects, support of development rules and structures from capitalists, difficulty in benefiting the deprived class from development loans and incentives, sale of urban development rules to generate income for urban management, rent generation of development laws, plans and programs, the influence of development agents in the distribution of rent, incompetence of urban development officials, the effect of beneficiary groups on the distribution of urban development opportunities, the high impact of cumbersome bureaucracy on the arbitrary direction of urban resources, failure of urban management to seriously confront the request for sale of development laws, the impossibility of meeting the needs of the urban space by the people, the polar development of the city, the waste of resources in urban development and unnecessary expenses in the city, and the high control of people with power and wealth over the structure of urban management. Additionally, the main credits in the urban planning and development system are the capitalization of the land and housing market, small urban projects carried out in deprived urban areas, the unequal competition of different classes in the development of the city, the greater benefit of the capitalist classes from the advantages and opportunities of urban development, the lack of impact of urban development on the reduction of class differences in the city, the flow of capital towards good areas of the city, capital construction in the city and land and housing speculation, uncertain distribution of the proceeds of urban development projects, privatization of public urban assets, failure to consider appropriate tax laws to prevent speculation, and the high role of financial markets (banks, as an example) in the accumulation of capital in the city.
Conclusion
The results of the present research show that in a rent-oriented urban development system, which is affected by the macro-values of the capitalist system, the macro-value of consumerism versus the macro-value of justice-oriented (which itself includes necessities such as respecting the right, preventing oppression, and public benefit influenced by Islamic culture. In case consumerism is based in the city instead of justice in urban development, the market and competition are placed as the center of affairs and the process of commodification spreads in urban development and it leads to the capitalization of the land and housing market. The capitalization of the land and housing market leads to an increase in the price of land and housing, and it becomes difficult to solve the essential need of providing housing shelter, and land for employment, especially for the deprived and oppressed classes. The continuation of the process of consumerism and the lack of attention to the category of public benefit is associated with the withdrawal of productive circuits from the urban space and the increase of speculative activities in this market. In this way, speculative investments in this market have led to the transformation of land and housing as one of the main places of capital accumulation and will lead to the production of a capitalist atmosphere. Following this, although many of the weak sections of society are facing problems in meeting their shelter needs, the ratio of the number of empty houses has increased, especially in valuable urban areas, and luxury malls and commercial centers are expanding in the cities. On the other hand, in rentier urban development, the great value of maintaining the system of capital accumulation in the city by the disciplinary institution is opposed to the great value of urban governance based on Islamic thought and the disciplinary institution by pushing development projects towards the goals and desires of powerful groups, creates the ground for aristocracy and waste. Also, implementing non-privileged and rent-seeking projects distorts the preservation of human dignity as the main duty of the government. In the rent-oriented urban development, the domination of the public sphere in the cities with the spread of classism in the urban areas has caused the weak strata to leave the good urban areas, and this results in the gathering of people with high power and influence in one space, after that, it is possible to get more benefits of development in these areas. Finally, rentier urban development has led to the creation of a social gap in the space and leads to individualism and social decay in front of the social province in the city.
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