Tehran, a City with a Memory Crisis: A Sociological Study of Urban Memory in Tehran

Author

Assistant Professor of Sociology, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.

10.22080/ssi.2025.29514.2299

Abstract

Objectives: The concept of urban memory has recently garnered the attention of urban researchers. This concept is based on the idea that a city is the main locus of collective memory; its places, buildings, landscapes, and public spaces provide citizens with the necessary frameworks for remembering their shared past and enable them to achieve a common identity. Apparently, over the past three decades, the social-spatial relations governing Tehran have led to a loss of its unique identity and soul, rendering its public spaces devoid of meaning and history. This article, based on the literature in this field and citing related research, aims to describe patterns of collective forgetting in Tehran as indicators of a memory crisis in the city. Methods: Thematic analysis was used to analyze and interpret patterns of collective forgetting in qualitative data gathered through library resources. This analysis was conducted with a deductive approach; themes were initially determined by Connerton's theory, and subsequently, signs, indicators, and evidence supporting this theory were identified and interpreted among the data related to Tehran. Results: Repressive erasure, prescriptive forgetting, forgetting that is constitutive in the formation of a new identity, structural amnesia, forgetting as annulment, forgetting as planned obsolescence, and forgetting as humiliated silence are various patterns of collective forgetting that indicate a memory crisis in Tehran. Conclusion: Ideology and economy have played significant roles in shaping these patterns of collective forgetting and the memory crisis in Tehran. The consequence is the loss of the mental image and narrative power of the city, which could have played an important role in reading and understanding urban environments and creating a sense of belonging.

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Main Subjects


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