Research

The Urban Political Ecology of Petro-Colonialism: The ‎Transformation of Ethnic Relations in Khuzestan’s Oil ‎Region, 1908-1990 

In the early 20th century, when oil was discovered in Khuzestan, the native Arab population was the dominant socio-political group in most parts of the region. A century later, they are among the most marginalized in Iran. What role did the oil industry play in this transformation? Drawing on archival research, this paper argues that the racialization of native populations has been central to the logic of oil capitalism. In Khuzestan, this began with the exclusion of Arabs from employment in the colonial oil company, severing their access to new forms of social reproduction and rendering them external to an industry that relied on their land. This exclusion persisted even after oil nationalization, revealing how oil capitalism operates through domestic colonialism. The paper contends that addressing the social and ecological consequences of the fossil fuel industry requires closer attention to how it disrupts the social reproduction of affected communities.

Nonprofit Sector Organization Actions on Risk Reduction Practices, the Oxford Encyclopedia of ‎Natural Hazards Governance, Oxford University Press

Non-profit organizations make significant contributions to society in a number of ways. In addition to providing services to underrepresented, marginalized, and vulnerable populations in our communities, they also play important advocacy, expressive, and leadership development, community building, democratization, and innovation-oriented roles.  The sector is thus regarded as “critical civic infrastructure,” civic capacity, or a social safety net. As such, through collaborative engagement in disaster or emergency management, non-profits can be even more instrumental in helping communities become disaster resilient.  Disaster management can be understood as a four-stage cycle that includes mitigation,  preparedness, response, and recovery functions. Past disasters demonstrate that nonprofits engage with this cycle in diverse ways. A few types of non-profit organizations explicitly include, as part of their mission, one or more of these stages of disaster management. These include traditional disaster relief organizations, organizations dedicated to preparedness, or those responsible for supporting risk reduction or mitigation efforts. Another set of organizations is typified by non-profits that shift their mission during times of disaster to fill unmet needs. These non-profits shift existing resources or skills from their pre-disaster use to new disaster relief functions. The other type of non-profit to respond or support disaster management is the emergent organization. These emergent non-profit its or associations are formed during an event to respond to specific needs. They can endure past the disaster recovery period and become new permanent organizations.  It is important to remember that nonprofits and more broadly, civil society, represent a unique sphere of voluntary human organization and activity separate from the family, the state, and the market. In some cases, these organizations are embedded in communities,  a position that grants them local presence, knowledge, and trust. As such, they are well-positioned to play important advocacy roles that can elevate the needs of underrepresented communities, as well as instigate disaster management policies that can serve to protect these communities. Furthermore, their voluntary nature—and the public benefit they confer—also position them to attract much-needed resources from various individuals and entities in order to augment or supplement governments’ often limited capacity. In all, civil society in general, is a sphere well positioned to execute the full spectrum of emer  gency management functions alongside traditional state responses.

Right to the City: Housing and Displacement; An ‎Evaluation of Tehran‎

In the face of recent global socio-economic challenges, an urban crisis has concurrently arisen, evident in the numerous urban protests championing the "right to the city." This notion serves as a fitting lens through which to both critique modern urban dynamics and envision an ideal city. This paper delves into the concept as framed by Henry Lefebvre. According to Lefebvre, in today's capitalist societies, wealth accumulates through urbanization. This very process, however, strips city dwellers of their power over their cities. As a result, the benefits of urbanization are primarily seized by capital. The rallying cry of "Right to the city" aims to reclaim this power. Currently, this slogan resonates with a multitude of social movements and legal reform efforts worldwide. This paper examines select international instances to demonstrate the transformation of the right to the city into a social and civil rights demand. Furthermore, we posit that the denial of this right to Tehran's residents underpins the city's urban planning shortcomings.

The Case of Iranian Women: Scale, Social Reproduction, and Legal ‎Systems in Feminist Environmental Justice Studies

This paper centers on the experiences of Iranian women to rethink the place of gender in environmental justice studies. Although environmental justice movements have long been shaped by the activism of women—especially women of color—gender and sexuality have remained marginal concerns within the academic field. This paper argues that Iranian women's struggles against discriminatory legal systems offer a crucial lens through which environmental justice can be reconceptualized. Drawing on narratives sourced from news outlets and social media, I demonstrate how legal inequalities produce specific forms of environmental harm. Laws that degrade women’s legal status contribute to environmental injustices by endangering lives, injuring bodies, interrupting daily subsistence, and enabling various forms of confinement. These harms must be recognized not only as social or legal issues but as environmental consequences. I propose that feminist environmental justice scholarship must confront the politics of scale and social reproduction, and expand its definition of both “environment” and “environmental harm” to account for the embodied and spatial impacts of legal discrimination. Iranian women’s experiences are not peripheral to environmental justice—they are central to how we must rethink its foundations 

Oil Through Her Eyes

Gender, Social Reproduction, and Everyday Resistance in Khuzestan’s Oil Region in ‎the First Half of the 20th Century

This paper will focus on the intersection of gender and sexuality within the colonial ‎discourse and how these aspects were essential in shaping the early development of ‎Khuzestan's oil cities. This examination of the gender politics of the oil industry will be constructed on two significant contexts: the colonial context of British company domination, and the environmental context: pollution, contamination, and ecological destruction. Within such a broad context, I will approach the book ‎through four perspectives: the influence of gender politics on urban ‎planning and architecture, the role of sexual relations, the everyday resistance and shaping alternative space in oil cities, and the necessity for domestic service in ‎oil cities. These perspectives offered a comprehensive understanding of gender politics in Khuzestan’s oil development in its early decades. ‎

David Pellow. (2020) What is critical environmental justice? ‎

David Pellow’s “What Is Critical Environmental Justice” is an invitation to rethink environmental justice. Pellow claims that although environmental justice (EJ) studies have developed substantially over the past two decades, moving from merely quantitative research on distributive environmental concerns to include procedural and recognition justice and a wider variety of methodological approaches, it still lacks critical insights and needs to be enhanced to address those flaws and limitations. David Naguib Pellow, Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, is the author of several books about environmental justice and is a significant figure in environmental sociology. The book consists of five chapters. In the first chapter, Pellow gives an overview of the history and the current situation of environmental justice research and movements. He then develops a critical framework on four pillars, which draw upon critiques of the current streams of EJ studies. The following three chapters are case studies to illustrate his framework: the challenges of racist state violence and the Black Lives Matter movement; the prison system in the United States; and the Israel–Palestine conflict. The final chapter is the conclusion.

Addressing Household Wasted Food: City of Portland ‎BPS Memo and Report

An Investigation on Land Ownership Models in Farahzad Neighborhood‎

Farahzad Neighborhood (Tehran, Iran), from an Informal Settlement to an Eco-Village‎

Formation, and Growth of Informal Settlements in Great Tehran; From Land Reform in the ‎‎1960s to Present‎