Content uploaded by Ijaud Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Ijaud Journal of Architecture and Urban Development on May 05, 2022
Content may be subject to copyright.
19
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development
Genealogy of Bio-Power in Urban Development
Plans (Case Study: Abkooh Neighborhood in
Mashhad)
1Naser Neja ti, 2*Mozaar Sarra , 3Reza Najafzadeh
1Ph.D. Cand idate in Urban and Regional Planning, Department of Urb an and Regi onal Plannin g and Desig n, Facult y of
Architecture and Ur ban Planning, Shahid Be heshti Universit y, Tehran, Iran.
2*Profess or, Depart ment of Urba n and Regio nal Planning a nd Desig n, Facult y of Architecture and Ur ban Planning, Shahid
Beheshti Universi ty, Tehran, Ira n.
3Assis tant Professor, Department of Polit ical Tho ught and Sc ience, Fac ulty of Economics and Political S cience s, Shahid Be heshti
Universi ty, Tehran, Iran.
Recieved 22.02.2021; Accepted 28.07.2021
ABS TRACT: In developing countries, after decades pa ssed from preparing urban development plans, informal
settlements and urban decay are unresolved, but their scope and severity increase day by day. Therefore, ins tead of
traci ng the root of this problem in prepari ng and implementing plans, it should be viewed from anot her perspective
and the hidden aspect of planning theory, i.e., the realm of power and its application to living space, mainly ignored
by urban planners. The primary purpose of this s tudy is to inves tigate the genealogy of urban development plans in
the Abkooh neighborhood to reect the application of bio-power in the process of spatial planning. Using the social
cons tructivism approach a nd accept ing the transition of the capitalis t sys tem f rom imperialism to the empire, the
current s tudy analyses two categories of power-knowledge: disciplinary power and bio-power and their relationship
with spat ial plann ing. Then, after describing the gray spaces, applying disciplinary power and bio-power in these
spaces is discussed. Finally, Foucault's genealogical approach is per formed to critically analyze the bio-power in
urban development projects related to the Abkooh neighborhood. From Foucault's power-knowledge perspective,
power relations seek to accumulate capital and com modify urban spaces through urban development plans and rely
on disciplinary power and bio-power and using the formal spatial planning sys tem. The research ndings prove that
his tor ically, the formation of urban development plans is connected to the net work of power relations. Therefore,
spatial pla nners, besides attending pla nning approaches routinely learned in t he academ ic environment, should also
address power-knowledge issues.
Keywords: Power-Knowledge, Di sciplinar y Power, Bio-Power, Gray Space, Abkooh Neighborhood of Ma shhad,
Foucault's Genealog y.
INTRODUCTION
A review of urban planning research related to urban decay
and informal settlements reveals that mos t of these areas
suer problems in various les including social and economic
(economic poverty, gradual evacuation of s tructures from
old residents, growth of social delinquency, accumulation of
low-level activities, and attracting criminals and addicts.),
environmental (air pollution, noise pollution, water pollution.)
and physical (low quality of buildings, high population density,
severe lack of municipal services, poor access, fragmentation of
parts. (Nikpour & Hassan Alizadeh, 2020; Pourmohammadi et
*Corresponding Author Email: sarra@sbu.ac.ir
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Vol. 12, No.2, P 19-30. Spring 2022
al., 2015; Poorahmad & Zarei, 2015; Sarvar, 2011; Veissi et al.,
2020; Sayyafzadeh, 2019). In the common view, urban decay
and informal settlements are formed due to non-compliance
with rules and regulations of urban planning and lack of s trict
supervision or problems in preparing and implementing plans.
Therefore, several solutions with dierent titles have been
presented, including recons truction, renovation, rehabilitation,
and urban regeneration. In other words, the assessments
regarding the ineectiveness of urban development plans
to solve the problems of informal settlements often occur
in the context of maintaining the s tatus quo and providing
technocratic solutions. Despite decades of preparing urban
E-ISSN 2345-2331 © 2022 IAU
Applied Research Article
DOI: 10.30495/IJAUD.2021.58940.1512
20
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Vol.12, No. 2, Spring 2022
development plans in developing countries and changing
planning approaches in preparing these plans, it is observed
that the problem of informal settlements and urban decay is
unresolved, but its scope and severity are increasing day by day.
Therefore, it is necessary to look at it from another perspective
and trace the root of this problem to something less addressed
in spatial planning, namely the phenomenon of power. Power
can be examined from various aspects such as military or
economic, but in this s tudy, power is considered from Michel
Foucault's perspective, power-knowledge (Flyvbjerg &
Richardson, 2002, 44). This type of power is, rs tly, networked
and, secondly, linked to knowledge and ethics.
Abkooh neighborhood in the metropolis of Mashhad, despite
the preparation of urban development plans from the urban
scale (three comprehensive plans) to the local scale (two
neighborhood renovation plans) as well as performing dierent
approaches of urban planning from recons truction, renovation,
and improvement to urban regeneration approach in recent
years, s till faces many unresolved problems. So, it seems that
power relations seek to accumulate capital and commodify
urban spaces through urban development plans in Abkooh. The
current s tudy attempts to deal with the root of the unresolved
problem of the Abkooh neighborhood from Foucault's
genealogical methodology so that its future solutions will not
be based on ins trumental rationality but based on what is called
phronesis or practical rationality.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The current s tudy is performed through social cons tructivism,
which is one of the genealogical assumptions. Social
cons tructivism emphasizes that we mus t critically look at those
ways of unders tanding the world, including our perceptions
that have been taken for granted (Burr, 2015, 20-21). In other
words, social cons tructivism is a critical approach to self-
evident knowledge. The methodology developed by Flyvbjerg
for power-related s tudies is called "phronetic planning
research." Phronesis goes beyond scientic and analytical
knowledge (epis teme) and technical knowledge or know-how
(techne) and attends to judgments and decisions made based
on the behavior of social experts and political actors. The
four rational-value ques tions at the forefront of research on
phronetic planning are: Where do we end up with planning
and democracy? Who wins and who loses, and by what
mechanism of power? Is this type of development desirable?
What is the bes t thing to do? (Flyvbjerg, 2002). Combining
the research of Flyvbjerg's phronetic planning research and
Foucault's genealogy, this s tudy rs t examines the bio-power
genealogy in urban development projects related to the Abkooh
neighborhood. The plans s tudied in this s tudy include the
rs t comprehensive plan of Mashhad metropolis (Khazeni
plan), the second comprehensive plan of Mashhad metropolis
(Mehrazan plan), the third comprehensive plan of Mashhad
metropolis (Farnahad plan), the rs t renovation plan of Abkooh
neighborhood (plan to improve the quality of Abkooh urban
decay), the second renovation plan of Abkooh neighborhood
(renovation and improvement plan of Abkooh urban decay)
and the regeneration plan of Abkooh neighborhood. In the
following, a social analysis of the actors' actions and reactions,
and decisions involved in the Abkooh neighborhood, and a
critical analysis of events in the context of the relationship
between knowledge and power have been performed. At
the same time, it has been s tudied what will happen to the
people and Abkooh neighborhood if the proposed projects are
implemented and the winners and losers. After reviewing what
has happened in the pas t years by the ocial urban planning
sys tem for the Abkooh neighborhood, sugges tions have been
made for the future of this neighborhood.
Theoretical Foundation
Given the inuence of macroeconomic, social, and political
conditions on the spatial planning sys tem, this section rs t
describes the macro level and the current context, i.e., the
transition of capitalism from imperialism to empire, and
then the power-knowledge aspects from Foucault's point of
view, including disciplinary power and bio-power and their
relationship with spatial planning has been inves tigated. After
describing the gray spaces, the method of applying disciplinary
power and bio-power in these spaces is analyzed, and nally,
Foucault's genealogical approach is discussed.
Empire, Disciplinary Power, and Bio-Power
In an evolutionary process after the transition from commercial
capitalism in the 16th and 17th centuries and indus trial
capitalism in the 18th and 19th centuries, the capitalis t sys tem
reached imperialism in the 20th century. In this period, a method
of exercising power is Manichaean rationality (dual rationality)
that divides phenomena into self and other. Edward gives a clear
example of this Said in that the Eas t is not a pure fact of nature,
but almos t a European invention; And Orientalism is a thinking
s tyle based on the ontological and epis temological dis tinction
made between the "Eas t" and (often) the Wes t, which expresses
the cultural and even ideological part as a kind of discourse
supported by ins titutions, words, academics, doctrines, ideas,
and even the colonial bureaucracy. European culture presents
its power and identity as a subs titute by portraying it in the Eas t
(Said, 2003, 87). The same phenomenon is observed in spatial
planning dualities, including center-periphery, north of the city
- south of the city, downtown - suburb, and formal-informal
settlements.
The capitalis t sys tem is more extensive and complex in
the 21s t century and is known as the "empire" - or "pos t-
imperialis t" era. The transition from imperialism to empire
is taking place, which is in line with the new features of the
internal arrangements for the transition from modernity to
pos tmodernity. Pos tmodernity is the new s tage of capital
accumulation and commodication accompanied by forming
the current form of the global market, which is based on
dierence and multiplicity (Hardt & Negri, 2000, 40-42). In
21
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development
this period, besides cultural and economic exploitation, social
activities are also exploitation and domination. The proletariat
is no longer merely the indus trial working class but includes
all those subjugated to capital, including those deprived.
The legitimacy of the empire is based on communication
indus tries and self-validation languages, and police actions in
the permanent s tate of exception. During the empire period,
pos tmodern radical action is non-dialectical, based on the
idea of plurality and multiplicity and the des truction of the
discipline and dualism of modern sovereignty and based on the
unity of values and voices of the marginalized, the exploited,
and the oppressed individuals (Hardt & Negri, 2000, 212-215).
In fact, from the genealogical perspective, which can be
classied within the framework of the traditions of critical
urban s tudies, the his tory of human societies is the his tory
of power relations. Cities were built with dierent power-
based relationships before they were replaced by the capitalis t
market and capitalis t production (Marcuse, 2011, 217-218).
According to Foucault, the function of power in the empire era
is directly related to the sys tem of knowledge and language.
Power produces knowledge. It mus t be acknowledged that
power and knowledge are directly co-related; It mus t be
admitted that neither power relations exis t without the creation
of a eld of knowledge associated with it, nor a knowledge
exis ts unless it requires power relations and at the same time
creates power relations. A Power-knowledge network means
exercising power through force and knowledge (Foucault,
1977, 265-270). By examining Foucault's works, two types
of power-knowledge can be identied: disciplinary power and
bio-power. These two types of power are not separate but a
continuation of each other, and as Foucault s tates, bio-power
does not eliminate disciplinary power but integrates with it.
Hence, in the following, disciplinary power and bio-power will
be discussed.
From the 17th and 18th centuries, a new power sys tem
emerged that diered from the legal-political theory of
sovereignty1(Foucault, 2003, 78). Disciplinary power focuses
on the body and its actions and the extraction of land and
labor from the body, rather than on the earth, producing goods
extraction and wealth. This type of power seeks to regulate
the body-tool or body-machine relationship ins tead of forcible
exploitation with the physical exis tence of a ruler, or in other
words, it tries to regulate the coercive relationship with the
production machine through the exis tence of a tight grid of
material coercions (Foucault, 1977, 135-137). The prerequisite
for this type of power exercise is disciplinary knowledge, penal
ins titutions, and disciplined spaces that form the three sides of
disciplinary power.
In the 18th century, the sciences were disciplined. In other
words, the internal organization of each knowledge turned
into a discipline that had a selection criterion in its territory
with which it could eradicate its incorrect knowledge or non-
knowledge. The primary function of 18th and 19th-century
universities, like the Napoleonic University, is "selection,"
but not the selection of people, but a selection of sciences.
As a penal ins titution, the university can play this selective
role because it has a monopoly. According to this monopoly,
any knowledge that is not born or formed in this type of
ins titutional realm is automatically and from the outset pre-
disqualied. The university selects knowledge. Its role is to
es tablish and impose a kind of consensus. Its role is the direct
or indirect use of government agencies to centralize knowledge
(Foucault, 2003, 190-192). The third side of disciplinary power
is disciplinary spaces. Power disciplined the spaces needed,
including factories and universities, through new knowledge
accumulation (Foucault, 1977, 194-195). Foucault explores
the concept that "discipline arises from the dis tribution of
individuals in space." He also describes the physical and
mental control over individuals exercised by manipulating
spatial relationships in Bentham's famous "circular building."
(Philo, 2000, 208-209).
In the second half of the 18th century, "bio-power" is formed:
a new technology of power integrated with disciplinary
technology ins tead of eliminating it (Foucault, 2003, 240-
242). Empire domination is no longer exercised through
the disciplinary requirements of the modern s tate but the
requirements of bio-political control. Empire is the ultimate
form of bio-power; since life is the absolute deviation from
power (Hardt & Negri, 2000, 353-355). Bio-power seeks
power's hold over life, and governmental control is biological.
In this type of power, the mechanisms of power and regulations
were adapted to the phenomenon of population and the
biological or biosocial processes specic to human masses.
Among issues related to bio-power, one can mention the birth
rate, mortality rate, life expectancy, population fertility, control
of human race relations, and, mos t importantly, control of the
environment and living space related to knowledge and practice
of spatial planning. Concerning disciplinary power and bio-
power, the two concepts of disciplinary society and control
society should also be mentioned. Disciplinary power leads to
the creation of a disciplinary society, and the bio-power creates
a controlled society. Although in the disciplinary society the
exercise of power through limitations of thoughts and actions,
punishment of criminal behavior, and the prescribing of
normative behavior was eective, in the control society, the
power is exercised through machines directly in the brain
(e.g., communication sys tem, information network) and bodies
(e.g., in welfare sys tems, supervised activities) which leads to
a spontaneous alienation from the meaning of life (Hardt &
Negri, 2000) In short, in bio-power and the control society, life
has become the object of power and power has surrounded life.
In this situation, the production and reproduction of life have
been directly endangered by power, and bio-political contexts
are increasingly serving capital accumulation (Foucault, 2008,
18-21).
Gray Space
The ultimate goal of critical urban theory is to realize the
22
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Vol.12, No. 2, Spring 2022
right to the city (Schmid, 2011, 43). This is the right to enjoy
social jus tice, which requires non-decisive acceptance of the
ruling capitalis t sys tem (Marcuse, 2011, 25-26). Gray spaces
refer to those in which social jus tice has been neglected and
in the period of empire are attended for the relations between
power and capital. The inhabitants of these spaces are usually
the mos t deprived residents who had no privileges and obtained
space on the margins of the law easily or by force (Foucault,
1977, 73-75). The concept of "gray space" includes settlements,
enclosed lands, people, and activities that fall between the
"light" of legality, ocial approval, safety, and the "darkness"
of expulsion, des truction, and death. Gray spaces that have
neither been merged nor eliminated from the quasi-permanent
margins of today's urban areas and are somewhat out of sight
of government ocials and urban plans. The recognition of
"gray space" as an uninterrupted process of "production" of
social relations ignores the false modernis t dichotomy between
"legal" and "criminal," "oppressed" and "inferior," "xed" and
"temporary." Gray spaces have largely, but not alone, become
the dominant feature of contemporary urbanism in the less
developed world (Yiftachel, 2011, 150-151).
Undoubtedly, power-based relationships are s tring favorites
of the government, builders, or the middle class. However,
informal settlements' "invisible" population is an essential
player in shaping cities and regions. Gray spaces, in the
realm of urban politics, are usually quietly tolerated, while
they are exposed to oensive discourses for their known
"ugliness," "crime," and "danger" for the desirable situation.
The segregation between the current imposed reality, and the
expression of its "intolerable" reasoning, planning, and legal
point of view begins a process of gray space creation during
which the boundaries between "accepted" and "rejected" are
cons tantly changing. All people are trapped in an unplanned
urban area that lacks certainty, s tability, and consequently
development. These consequences are evident in many cities.
All neighborhoods and regions lack services to realize their
urban citizenship, and new urban colonial relations are formed.
Gray space is a process full of power. Thus, the objective
emergence of "s tubborn" informal spaces is usually confronted
with a range of illegal and prohibitive discourses, regulations,
and violence ins tead of reform or equalization policies. This
creates boundaries that divide urban groups according to
their s tatus, an "integration segregation" process that keeps
gray spaces in a s tate of "permanent temporality" that is both
tolerated and reproached and cons tantly awaits "correction"
(Yiftachel, 2011, 152-153).
Disciplinary Power and Bio-Power in Gray Space
One of the problems of gray spaces is the commodication of
housing. In the capitalis t economic sys tem, housing and land
are treated as commodities produced, sold, and managed for
personal gain. This sys tem is based on an economic sys tem
that moves by the tendency to increase prots for some and
to the detriment of others (Marcuse, 2011, 216). In the Urban
Revolution (2003), Lefebvre briey notes that "when the main
turnover ... indus trial production ... begins to slow down,
capital shifts to the second sector, real es tate" and shows how
"even real es tate trading may become the main source of capital
formation, that is, the realization of surplus-value." However,
his goal in that writing and other contemporary writings was
not to create a political economy for the city, but rather a more
fundamental s tudy of world urbanization and its process, i.e.,
the politicization of space (Goonewardena, 2011, 87).
The supply of housing, which is one of the necessities of life,
is provided through the private market, housing for business
and not for the people. In the language of classical economics,
the issue of housing transfer is essential due to its exchange
value and not for its use-value or the commodication of
housing (Marcuse, 2011, 224). In the es tablished discourses of
neoliberal urban politics, there is a dichotomy of "des truction
or renovation," meaning that declining urban centers mus t be
renovated. If renovation does not occur, these areas will be
devas tated and depopulated. However, the renovation will be
to evacuate residents or increase rents, and there are other ways
to increase the prosperity of these areas. One of the s trategies
of decommodication of housing is limiting the role of prot in
decisions that aect housing and replacing the basic principle
of determining social needs. This s trategy requires social
ownership of housing, social production of housing supply,
general control of housing inves tment, social control of land,
controlling neighborhoods by residents, positive action and
choosing to house, and fair allocation of resources (Slater,
2011).
Order mus t be maintained in society. Order in society preserves
the current discipline and helps dierent classes to perform their
dened functions. This order may include housing, jobs, social
relationships; The anarchis ts' debates concerning the order
of society, especially in the second half of the 19th century,
believed that the rule of society served the bourgeoisie. That
crime and rebellion of criminals and lawbreakers were a tool
for combating it and that a political unity mus t be es tablished
among popular lawbreakers. Part of "power relations" is
discipline. When discipline exis ts in the society, it means that
the ruling class has been able to ins titutionalize its demands
through discipline; In other words, it has made its favorite
behaviors cons tant and repetitive and "takes care" of them
while "punishes" everything other behaviors. Marginalization
can include that "outlawed" person, that great nomad of
society who wanders the borders of obedient and terrifying
order. Crime is not born in the margins, but through the mos t
intensive accessions, under the mos t rigorous care, and as a
result of the accumulation of disciplinary coercion that is
born (Foucault, 1977). From this perspective, a cause of the
so-called informal settlement is the accumulation of s trict
disciplinary coercion. Urban development plans lead to the
es tablishment of "discipline" in cons truction by providing
regulations for using the land, the minimum land allocation
area, and other similar cases for which the urban management
23
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development
complex is responsible for taking care, and failure to comply
with this rule for the privileged class only includes nes and
can be violated. However, if the working class violates this
law, it is called informal settlement. It is subject to punishment
(des truction by disciplinary bodies including the Article 100
Commission or failure to receive municipal services or creating
decay and informal labels.)
In the following, the genealogy of the power relations with
the people and two critical concepts, torture, and punishment
over time, are discussed. In the 19th century, "torture," or the
great show of corporal punishment in Europe, which had a
long his tory in the Middle Ages, disappeared. The 19th century
marked the beginning of the age of impunity for punishment or
punishment without appearances. The purpose of punishment
moved from the body toward the res triction of freedom and
property. Punishment targeted the soul ins tead of the body
(Foucault, 1977, 15-17). If the inhuman punishment on human
beings was reduced and the oender was dealt with humanly, it
was not for "humanity" for the eects of inhuman punishment
on the agent of power. Humanity is an attributed respectful
name. In other words, power only matters that punishment
should be a preventive factor so that a crime with adverse
eects on the power agent is prevented. For example, in the
case of informal settlements, the reason for s topping rigorous
des truction was not for respecting humanity but for preventing
the adverse eects it had on the ruling class itself, such as the
alliance and s treet riots of the working class. In other words, the
des truction of these settlements did not prevent the formation
of urban decay and reinforced the unity of their inhabitants and
the growth of these s tructures.
On the other hand, the people living in these areas were cheap
laborers, with the minimum living facilities at the disposal of
the capitalis t sys tem and the ruling class. Therefore, although
these neighborhoods were illegal, the cos t of punishing their
inhabitants for the ruling class was more than its benet.
Nothing can weaken the law sys tem as much as the hope of
not being punished. Hence, on the one hand, the powerful class
creates a higher density than allowed without fear of violating
the rules since it hopes it will not be punished and that it can
compensate for its wrongdoing by paying the price. On the
other hand, the working class s tarts building by ignoring the
rules hoping that its solidarity and insurgent power will prevent
jus tice and that the ruling power does not punish it.
According to the reasons mentioned above, punishments and
tortures were changed since the purpose of punishment was
changed; during the torture period, which intended to punish
the oender himself, punishments included the "oender's
body." Nevertheless, when the goal of punishment turned
into "preventing the recurrence of crime," there was a need
for a form of punishment with a more signicant impact on
society, such as "defamatory and scandalous punishments."
The punishments of the inhabitants of informal settlements
may be called defamatory. Ins tead of des troying houses, they
labeled these types of s tructures. They called them urban decay
and informal settlements, which imposed severe negative
social consequences (social s tatus and occupational/economic
opportunities). After the reforms in Europe, the oender's body
became the property of society. In other words, the oender's
body turned into the object of collective property and,
therefore, the bes t torture one with a benet for the general
public that is doing public work. Therefore, although some
residents of informal settlements possess working skills, they
are not accepted and trus ted by society due to the geographical
location of their living place, and sometimes they are forced to
seek non-ocial and labor jobs. They do work with the lowes t
payments and specic services. Punishment should be like a
school, like an open book that cons tantly educates and reminds
people, not a ceremony that is suddenly held and ended (like
torture; Foucault, 1977, 19).
In other words, punishment mus t be a kind of discourse to
remain in society and achieve its primary purpose to prevent
the recurrence of crime in the future. Those who have
undertaken unauthorized cons truction in informal settlements
carry this title and suer social exclusion as long as they
live there. Discourse becomes the transmitter of the law: by
educating and reminding the oense and the oender and the
punishment that the oender endures, eects of the oense are
warned to the pos terity, and exerting law is ins titutionalized
in other citizens. Ins tead of performing torture at one point in
the city, the whole city becomes a place for torturing, and a
"punitive city" is created. The discipline and power relations in
the city are neither by the "center of power" nor by a nucleus of
forces, but by multiple networks of various elements - space,
ins titution, rules, and discourse.
In summary, as shown in the comparison of torture and
punishment in Table 1, torture emphasized the body and
corporal punishment. Because the punishment purpose turned
from punishing the oender to preventing the recurrence of
the crime, the torture was abandoned. Punishment was placed
on the agenda of governments by emphasizing defamatory
Kind of punishment Origin Purpose of punishment Method of punishment How to prevent crime
Torture King’s will Punishing the
oender Body
Ins titutionalization in the people is
based on the collective fear and terror
caused by torture
Punishment Law’s will Prevening recur-
rence of the crime
Defamation or acting for
the public interes t
Ins titutionalization in the people
based on the discourse created in society
Table 1: Comparison of torture and punishment (Foucault, 1977)
24
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Vol.12, No. 2, Spring 2022
labels and working for the public benets based on disciplinary
discourses in society.
In ancient times, the social method of the Greeks to deal with
the insane was social exclusion, so that they were severely
separated from others, and they were taken by ship to the sea
or other cities. During the Middle Ages, social exclusion was
also practiced for lepers, depriving them of some of the rights
of ordinary citizens. This rejection occurred by labeling and
attributing unique characteris tics to these people. Therefore,
with the support of laws and regulations and norms in the
social, security, religious and ritual elds, these people were
hampered from entering specic urban spaces. After the Middle
Ages, social exclusion techniques were applied to other social
groups, including the poor. In the mercantilis t economy (16th
to 18th centuries), which was based on commercial capitalism
(exports), the poor was neither producers nor consumers.
Therefore, the poor were sent to the hospital2 and the insane
and oender as a nuisance and moral jus tication. After the
Indus trial Revolution, attitudes toward poverty changed from
moral to economic. The poor became important as labor and
were no longer sent to the hospital. From this period onwards,
governments attended to the poor and dis tributed them in areas
where the workforce was scarce. The target population of
these forced residences included peasants expelled from their
land, expelled or fugitive soldiers, unemployed workers, poor
s tudents, and the sick, who were often ordered to be expelled
from the city. Compulsory residence, at leas t at its beginning,
had a single meaning throughout Europe; this was a solution for
the 17th century to deal with the economic crisis that plagued
the entire Wes tern world: declining wages, unemployment,
lack of money, a set of phenomena that may have arisen from
the crisis in the Spanish economy (Foucault, 1964). Essentially,
the poor are an eternal pos tmodern gure: a transversal subject,
dierent, omnipotent, and dynamic.
Today, in biopolitical regimes of production and pos t-
modernization processes, the poor are an exploited body. In the
era of world production, he/she is always the mos t exploited
and, mos t of all, is always dependent on the wages of the rulers
(Hardt & Negri, 2000). What matters is the techniques and
trends of excluding these social groups (Foucault, 2003, 66).
In the present era, this group of people is somehow expelled
from the city during the imperial period. However, due to
society's need for their workforce, they live in the suburbs with
dicult conditions with the leas t allocated public resources.
So, the same social exclusion has been reproduced dierently,
reinforced by disciplinary power and bio-power.
Genealogy
More than any other contemporary philosopher, Foucault
seems to have reminded us of the decisive importance of
power in forming and controlling discourses, the production
of knowledge, and the social cons truction of spaces. The path
to power in planning theory can be traced back to the work
of Michel Foucault. Foucault's works are divided into two
periods: "archeology" and "genealogy." Foucault's theory
of discourse was part of his archeology. Archeology in no
way seeks to dene the thoughts, ideas, images, themes, and
preoccupations hidden or revealed in discourses; ins tead, it
follows the denition of these discourses as actions subject
to rules. In his archeology s tudies, Foucault sought rules that
determined which propositions in a particular his torical period
should be accepted as meaningful and accurate. The Archeology
description seeks to reveal the regularity of a discourse action.
Archeology is nothing more than a rewrite. Archeology is the
sys tematic description of a discourse, object (Foucault, 1972).
In Foucault's archeology period, the truth was producing,
regulating, and disseminating propositions. However, Foucault
es tablishes a link between truth and power in the genealogy
period, arguing that truth is rooted in and produced by power
sys tems. Genealogies are related to the revolt of the sciences.
This rebellion does not refer much to the themes, methods,
or concepts of science. However, above all, it is essentially
a rebellion agains t the eects of centralizing power, which
depends on the ins titutionalization and eciency of any
organized scientic discourse. Genealogy mus t combat the
eects of the power of any discourse that is considered scientic.
Genealogy is an attempt to liberate his torical knowledge, to
remove its limitations, or in other words, to empower them
to ght agains t the compulsion of an integrated theoretical,
formal, and scientic discourse. The dierence between what
may be called the his tory of science and the genealogy of
sciences is that the his tory of science essentially has its root in
the general axis of cognition truth. Unlike the his tory of science,
the genealogy of the sciences is on a dierent axis; That is, the
axis of discourse-power or, in other words, the axis of action-
confrontation of power discourse (Foucault, 2003). In short, if
we call archeology the identication of dominant discourses
in each his torical period, while genealogy seeks to identify the
power relations that in each his torical and temporal period has
made a discourse scientically dominant in the society.
Critical urban theoris ts argue that capitalis t cities are not
only areas for commodication, but they have become so
commodied that their socio-spatial forms - from buildings
and built environments to land-use sys tems, production and
exchange networks, and city-wide infras tructure supplies - are
cons tantly reorganized to increase protability capacity. Cities
in the capitalis t sys tem have turned into places for capital
accumulation s trategies (Brenner, 2011). The city, or urban
life, becomes a commodity. This process may be described
as the commodication of urban aairs. Lefebvre points out
(Lefebvre, 2003), this s trategy goes far beyond mere and bit by
bit sale of space. Space, not jus t land and real es tate, become
exchange value (Schmid, 2011, 53). In this empire period,
the commodication of urban aairs is occurring, common
attitudes of urban planning such as ins trumental rationality
and communicative rationality. Their derived methods are not
sucient for dealing with this phenomenon and nding other
types of development. Ins tead, it is necessary to implement a
25
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development
method that, by examining power relations, can recognize the
mechanisms of the situation in cities. The authors believe that
the combination of critical urban theory and genealogy helps to
analyze power relations in urban development plans.
Genealogy of Urban Development Projects related to
Abkooh Neighborhood
To inves tigate the bio-power genealogy in the Abkooh
neighborhood in urban development plans, the rs t three
development plans of Mashhad city have been s tudied.
After that, two renovation and improvement projects for
this neighborhood have been explored. In continuation, the
measures taken by The Abkooh neighborhood regeneration
oce have been reviewed.
Before the physical development of Mashhad, the primary
core of the Abkooh neighborhood was formed as a rural in the
1100 solar year at a dis tance of 6 km wes t of Mashhad (Saeedi
Rezvani, 2006). Areas around the Abkooh neighborhood were
formed before 1956, and its adjacent areas were developed
after 1956 and 1957. Abkooh neighborhood is located in
Dis trict 1 of Mashhad municipality, one of the mos t privileged
dis tricts. The population of this neighborhood is 5295 based on
the population and housing census and the data of the s tatis tical
block in 2016 (Statis tics Center of Iran, 2016). Analysis of the
income and physical s tatus of the residents of the Abkooh
neighborhood shows that these residents are among the less
privileged people in Mashhad. The highes t frequency in the
land parcels area, as shown in Table 2, belongs to the area
group of 50-100m^2, which includes about 40% of the land
parcels, and among these, the parcels up to 75m^2 have the
highes t number. In the second category, which includes 25%,
the parcels areas are 100 to 150m^2. Then, there are the parcels
under 50m^2Which make up about 15% of the total parcels.
In general, about 80% of Abkooh neighborhood land parcels
are less than 150m^2Which indicates small land parcels
(Farnahad, 2013).
In the rs t comprehensive plan of Mashhad, called the Khazeni
comprehensive plan, residents of dierent city dis tricts were
divided into three parts based on their income as shown in
Table3: high privileged, semi-privileged, and low-privileged
(Khazeni, 1971). This division has been maintained in the
detailed plan, so the borderline between the three regions, given
the social and economic situation of the people, has made it
possible to divide the lands into larger parcels in the privileged
and in smaller parcels in low-privileged dis tricts.
Based on the revenue zoning of this plan, also presented in
the detailed Khazeni plan (Mashhad rs t detailed plan) and
accepted in the reports of Mehrazan comprehensive plan
(Mashhad second comprehensive plan), the city of Mashhad
is divided into three low-income, medium-income, and high-
income dis tricts, in which Abkooh neighborhood is located in
the high-income. The proposed density of the detailed Khazeni
plan is a combination of medium and high density, which
includes a minimum area of 200 and 175m^2. It should be
reminded that about 80% of the Abkooh neighborhood texture is
below 150 meters3. In other words, in Khazeni's proposed plan,
Land Parcel areaPercentage
0 - 5013.9
50 - 10039.7
100 - 15025.0
150-20010.4
Above 20011
Total100
Income dis trict Density Minimum parcel area
Dis trict 1
High-Privileged
Low density 250
Middle density 200
High density 175
Dis trict 2
Semi-privileged
Low density 200
Middle density 162.5
High density 137.5
Dis trict 3
Low-privileged
Low density 150
Middle density 125
High density 100
Table 2: area of residential land parcels in Abkooh neighborhood (Farnahad, 2013)
Table 3: Density details in residential land use in Khazeni detailed plan (Khazeni, 1971, 70)
26
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Vol.12, No. 2, Spring 2022
nearly 80% of Abkooh neighborhood residents are neglected,
and this plan aimed to change the nature of this neighborhood
by supposing it the same as other neighborhoods of Dis trict 1.
In line with what was proposed in Khazeni detailed plan, the
severe rs t intervention took place in the Abkooh neighborhood
in early 1981. According to this plan, the cons truction project
of Das tgheyb Boulevard s tarted to provide access to the Sajjad
neighborhood4, and the Abkooh neighborhood was divided into
two northern and southern halves. The s tudy of the roads and
the proposed land use of the Khazeni detailed plan (Farnahad,
2013) indicates that only the peripheral roads and some large
parcels around the neighborhood have been achieved while its
inner roads have not been implemented.
In the second comprehensive plan of Mashhad, called the
Mehrazan comprehensive plan, which was prepared in 1991,
the revenue zone of the city (previously mentioned in the
Khazeni plan) was represented, and Abkooh neighborhood was
put again in the auent Dis trict 1. The proposed land use of the
Mehrazan comprehensive plan in the Abkooh neighborhood is
also a commercial-residential complex (Mehrazan, 1991). In
the third comprehensive plan of Mashhad city called Farnhaad
plan prepared in 2006, the revenue zone of the city is divided
into ve dis tricts. Although the residents of the Abkooh
neighborhood are in revenue zones of 3, 4, and 5, in this
plan, they are in zones 1 and 2, which points to the purpose
of the plan to make the residents' s tatus, land prices, and
housing quality similar to those of the adjacent neighborhoods
(Farnahad, 2006). In this plan, the Abkooh neighborhood has
been introduced as a mixed zone with dis trict and city services,
which shows the continuation of economic attitude toward this
neighborhood due to its s trategic economic position in the city.
A signicant event in the third comprehensive plan is to
determine what is called urban decay. The Article 5 Commission
has approved the area of urban decay in Mashhad city of the
Law on the Es tablishment of the Supreme Council of Urban
Planning and Architecture in the s tudies of the comprehensive
plan. Abkooh neighborhood has been identied and introduced
as an urban decay without urban heritage. The fundamental
propositions of the comprehensive plan of Mashhad metropolis
about urban decay such as Abkooh neighborhood are the
tendency of urban management to participate in urban decay
projects, the exceptional location of the urban decay of
Abkooh in Mashhad and its facilities and opportunities, low
employment rate and the exis tence of some informal jobs and
physical weakness of exis ting buildings (Farnahad, 2006).
Given the physical criteria of merely determining an urban
decay, including the ne grain residential pieces, ins tability of
buildings, and impermeability of roads, the urban management
complex with higher-order ins titutions' approval allows and
rationalizes entry and intervention into this neighborhood.
As mentioned before, besides these physical criteria, the
unfavorable economic situation of these neighborhood
residents is referred to as "informal jobs."
In 2011, the urban management complex went beyond and did
not limit itself to the provisions of comprehensive and detailed
plans of Mashhad for solving the problems of the Abkooh
neighborhood. Therefore, it prepares the rs t renovation plan
entitled "Abkooh urban decay quality improvement plan"
specically for this neighborhood. In the vision of this plan, it is
s tated: "Abkooh neighborhood... has a functional and physical
connection with the same neighborhoods as its surroundings".
As s tated earlier, due to the s trategic economic position of the
Abkooh neighborhood in this project, it has been compared with
the surrounding neighborhoods, and it is believed that it should
be equal to its surroundings. Although in the third proposed
comprehensive plan, the oors of residential buildings were
between 2 to 4, in the 2011 (Abkooh improvement plan) plan,
the number of the proposed oors is increased, and 3 to 5 oors
are proposed, which shows the intensication of an economical
approach to the plan. The minimum segregation of residential
parcel area is considered to be 400 m2, while about 80% of
Abkooh texture is less than 150m^2. Also, mos t of the intended
uses are for-prot and include residential and commercial land
uses on a regional and city scale (Farnahad, 2013). Analyzing
the level intended for linear and commercial complexes in the
proposed plan compared to the previous detailed plan manifes ts
that this share of these land uses is increased signicantly. The
for-prot approach to the plan is more intensied.
In 2011 when this plan was prepared, the Abkooh
neighborhood's current situation was equal to 8350 people.
However, in the approved detailed plan, the proposed population
was 3615, and in the proposed plan, it was 3950 people. Also,
residential land use has been reduced from about 17 hectares in
the current situation to 9 hectares in the proposed plan. These
numbers show that the population and residential area of this
neighborhood should be reduced by almos t half. On the other
hand, the commercial infras tructure of this neighborhood, which
is currently 31,000m2, has been proposed about 144,000m2 in
this plan, which is almos t increased vefold. All these gures
refer to a change in attitude towards this neighborhood and a
decrease in the share of residential land use on the one hand
and an increase in the share of commercial land use on the other
hand. Finally, the economic and nancial es timate prepared by
the consultant indicates that in case of using the securities and
acquiring the entire texture, including the building site and
s tanding property, providing and cons tructing public services
and for-prot land uses, both commercial and residential, cos ts
up to 10,000,000 million rials for urban management and in
return brings an income of 44,000,000 Million rials for it. In
other words, the urban management complex is promised that
after performing this plan, the revenue will be four times its
cos t for the municipality organization.
In line with the proposed plan and to nance the acquisition of
real es tate, the executive management of Abkooh texture issues
nancial securities in two s tages through banks. According to
Article 2 of the Law on the Issuance of Participation Papers,
participation bonds are "securities issued under a partnership
law at a specied nominal price for a specied period. Holders
27
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development
of these bonds will share in the prots from implementing
the relevant plan in proportion to the nominal price and the
duration of the participation." These securities are issued to
provide part of the nancial resources required by government
development-prot projects to pay for creating, completing,
and developing protable production, cons truction, and
service projects and are handed over to inves tors who intend
to implement these projects. The rs t period is between 2009
and 2015, in which about 600 land parcels are acquired in this
period with the support of these bonds. In the second period,
which begins after the revision of the Abkooh neighborhood
plan, i.e., from 2016 to 2017, the second phase of issuing
nancial securities s tarts with the participation of banks, and
about 150 more land parcels are acquired.
The second renovation plan of the Abkooh neighborhood,
titled "The renovation and improvement plan of the urban
decay of Abkooh neighborhood," is prepared in 2016 (Deputy
of Urban Planning and Architecture, 2016). Since ve years
were passed from the rs t plan and the due date of these
bonds was approaching, and since a small percentage of the
land parcels were acquired despite having enough nancial
resources, the urban management complex decided to review
the previous plan and to adjus t it to the reality to take s teps
towards its implementation. The minimum area for the land
parcels in this plan was at leas t 200m2, which was reduced
compared to the 400m2 in the previous plan. Also, the proposed
area for the residential unit was 75m2, which was less than
135m2 in the previous plan. Although this plan decreased
the area of residential land parcels to become more feasible,
inves tigating the share of for-prot and non-prot uses shows
that it has increased from 43% in the 2011 plan to 47% in the
2016 plan, which implies the intensication of the economic
view toward this neighborhood and more excellent economic
added value to the plan in order to achieve economic forecas ted
in the previous plan.
Following the national approach, which in academic literature
moved away from issues such as recons truction, renovation, and
improvement approaches and was replaced with regeneration
literature, in enactment the feasibility package of repairing,
renovating, and improving the urban decay of Abkooh
neighborhood approved in 2020, this change of approach has
been tried, "Due to the change in the national approach in
the implementation of renovation and improvement projects
and line with the change in the approach of Mashhad urban
management in the recons truction of Abkooh neighborhood,
from direct project-based intervention to regeneration with
maximum participation of the people ..." (Islamic City Council
of Mashhad ، 2020). Firs t, the intellectual turmoil can be seen in
this resolution as the three terms of renovation, improvement,
and regeneration have been mentioned together in the title and
text. Second, it is clearly s tated that due to the change in the
national approach, the approach of local urban management has
changed from direct project-based intervention to regeneration
with maximum participation of people. However, as previously
discussed, only the title and appearance of recons truction have
been preserved; participating agents are not the neighborhood
residents, but the inves tors since the rs t group cannot aord
it. According to cons truction experts, the cons truction license
and completion certicate cos t is approximately 8% to 12%
of the cons truction cos t. Therefore, all the incentives provided
in this enactment for the cons truction license and completion
certicate are ultimately 12% of the cons truction cos t. In other
words, practically, the power of the municipality organization
to reduce cons truction cos ts for the residents of the Abkooh
neighborhood is equal to 12%, which is very small compared
to the dierence between the cos t of residential land parcels in
this neighborhood with that of adjunct ones.
The urban management has no clear picture of what regeneration
is and what it should do in the Abkooh neighborhood. Despite
the change of approach due to lack of belief, it s till follows the
same old approach behind all its policies. The big contradiction
in the approach of urban management is that contrary to
the gentrication and social exclusion of the neighborhood
residents, it mus t recognize the right of people to s tay in the
neighborhood due to the regeneration approach. This means
that the economic value of the neighborhood does not increase,
at leas t in the short term, due to the maintenance of its physical
condition. On the other hand, the economic approach of urban
management based on nancing through partnership bonds
indicates that the valuation of acquired lands and according to
what is mentioned in urban development plans, i.e., "sameness
of Abkooh neighborhood with its adjacent neighborhoods,"
requires that current residents leave the neighborhood and be
replaced by people who can aord to buy high-rise housing and
be more auent like the adjacent neighborhoods. Therefore,
although the regeneration approach and facilitation oces
formed in these neighborhoods improves the residents'
life quality, interviews with city managers and facilitation
oces managers show that in practice, they do not believe
in this (Shahre Zibaye Khavaran, 2020) since life quality
improvement may solidify the residents' decisions to s tay at the
neighborhood, which is contrary to the hidden goal of those in
power and capital to expel the residents from the neighborhood
and to trade their land and real es tate.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
Surveys of the situation of the Abkooh neighborhood in
2020 show that out of 1913 land parcels in the Abkooh
neighborhood, only 723 parcels have been acquired by the
municipality, which is about 37.8%. Therefore, despite the
preparation of numerous plans for the Abkooh neighborhood
and nancing by banks during these years, for various reasons,
the future of this neighborhood has not progressed according
to the comprehensive, detailed plans and renovation and
improvement plans performed to modify its fate. As mentioned
earlier, the price of land in the Abkooh neighborhood is about
half the price of apartments in adjacent neighborhoods due to
several problems like lack of land documents and other issues
28
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Vol.12, No. 2, Spring 2022
that arose in this urban decay. If we consider the average
number of residential land parcels in the Abkooh neighborhood
as 100 m2, if a landlord sells his land, he can buy a nearly 50
m2 apartment. In addition to the economic issue, the challenges
of apartment culture mus t be added. This is not the whole
s tory. Another problem of the residents of this neighborhood
is the low proportionate shares of the owner. Since the owner
cons tructs unauthorized oors and sells them, his proportionate
shares are reduced by half or one-third. So economically, these
landlords cannot consolidate and create residential land parcels
with minimum segregation of 200m2 Furthermore, at bes t, they
can buy an apartment in the suburbs if they sell their property.
Since the working environment of these residents is mainly
in the adjacent neighborhoods, moving to suburbs will add to
the cos t of their daily commuting from the suburbs to the city
center.
Given the above mentioned, authorities behind the technical
and rationalization approaches of urban development projects
with titles such as regeneration and beginning the ques tion,
and applying titles relied on academic knowledge, pursue a
policy of social exclusion in practice with the idea of depriving
services and reduce life quality to lead the residents of Abkooh
neighbor to sell their residential units. These authorities aim
to acquire and consolidate the residential units and hand them
over to inves tors to reach a suitable economic added value. In
this regard, as shown in Fig.1, four forces can be identied that
are the components of bio-power.
Firs t, political ins titutions and decisions should be considered.
For the Abkooh neighborhood, all urban development projects
in this neighborhood were suspended due to a political decision
based on social, cultural, physical, and decay problems. With
the approval of the city council, the executive management
specic to the Abkooh neighborhood launched. Then, a unique
plan was prepared for this neighborhood which intensied the
economic attitude towards it compared to the previous plans.
Like Agamben's idea about the permanent s tate of exception,
the Abkooh neighborhood cannot have regulations like other
similar parts of the city due to its unique social, physical, and
cultural problems. Enforcing laws and regulations for this
texture, i.e., implementing comprehensive and detailed plans,
is suspended. Due to a lack of ownership land documents, the
residents have neither the right to sell nor build their residential
units. They have to wait for reform, and during this period,
those who cannot s tand this precarious situation may decide
to move to another neighborhood after selling their properties.
The second factor is market forces who are one of the leading
players in bio-power. As mentioned earlier, the s trategic
location of the Abkooh neighborhood has provided an excellent
opportunity for real es tate inves tors. The dierence between
the purchase price of residential units in this neighborhood
compared to its adjacent neighborhoods (which is nearly
half) shows the attractiveness of inves ting in it. According to
inves tors, the price growth of land parcels only happens when
the Abkooh name is removed. Its residents move to other
neighborhoods since, as mentioned in the urban development
plans, this neighborhood becomes its adjacent neighbors.
The third factor is the media and media coverage of these
neighborhoods. Analyzing images and news text about urban
decay shows that these textures are often portrayed with greater
social and delinquent problems than other parts of the city, while
several s tudies reject this idea. Also, the images reecting these
textures often display half-des troyed or des troyed buildings
with cons truction debris, mos t of which are the same pieces
that the municipality has owned and des troyed. Also, acquired
and des troyed spaces, often scattered in the neighborhood,
create defenseless urban spaces that reduce social control.
Also, following the city managers, the media usually oer
physical solutions such as consolidation, which is impossible
for the residents to participate due to their low economic s tatus.
The fourth factor that we are mos t concerned about is the
knowledge of urban planning. As Foucault puts it, power seeks
to discipline through knowledge. Relying on the duplications
of Manichaean logic, a formal-informal discussion of
settlements and occupations is shaped. Like the defamatory
punishments that Foucault puts it, the term urban decay refers
to these areas, which themselves have severe consequences
for the inhabitants' social life of these areas. In addition to
the psychological burden these textures have on the residents
of these neighborhoods, and in line with achieving job
opportunities and marriage due to their home address and the
name of their neighborhood makes them have a lower position
in society and miss many of them these opportunities. Likewise,
disciplinary knowledge is evident in urban development plans.
So that in each his torical period, regarding the urban planning
literature that is considered by academics in the world and Iran,
once with the words renovation and improvement and again
Fig.1: Bio-power components
29
International Journal Of Architecture and Urban Development
with the approach of regeneration, they try to validate their
proposals and rationalize intervention to the neighborhood to
pursue social exclusion of residents from the neighborhood.
From the social cons tructivis t approach, neighborhoods that
are introduced as urban decay can be considered as cons tructed
in a social context that manifes ts the power discourse:
neighborhoods that have physical problems such as small
land parcel area and ins tability; social problems such as the
presence of addicts and s tragglers; trac problems such as
being and lack of parking spaces; security problems such as
s tealing and subs tance abuse; environmental problems such as
the high amount of sewage and unpleasant odors; and nally,
economic problems such as informal employment. Although
some of these problems may exis t in these neighborhoods,
this is not the total truth. A close look at causes and eects
in these neighborhoods reveals that some of their problems
are the results of urban management actions. For example, if
the segregation limit of residential land parcel is considered
200m2, mos t parts it in Abkooh neighborhood is called small
land parcel. However, accursing to the rs t comprehensive
plan, minimum segregation of 100m2 is acceptable in low-
privileged areas. Therefore, it is evident that by changing the
position of the Abkooh neighborhood in high or low-privileged
dis tricts, it can be labeled as an urban decay neighborhood or a
neighborhood built according to the rules and regulations. Also,
eld surveys in the Abkooh neighborhood indicate that due
to the acquisitions and des truction carried out in this texture,
suitable hidden spaces are formed for addicts and s tragglers.
This issue causes dissatisfaction of the neighborhood residents
after intervening in urban management. As previously s tated
about the disciplinary power, the intervention approach has
recently shifted from torture or bulldozing and demolition of
residential units to punishment and defamatory labels such as
"urban decay" and "informal settlement" with numerous social
and economic consequences for the inhabitants.
CONCLUSION
Critical urban theory sugges ts that spatial planning does not
have a purely technical and non-political role but is a political
and social action in which power relations are inuential.
Therefore, in this s tudy, it was shown that urban planning has
a dual role that, in addition to its mission and goal, which is
to improve the quality of life and promote the public interes t,
may have a hidden aspect: integrating with power relations.
Based on Foucault's power-knowledge perspective, power
relations seek to accumulate capital and commodify urban
spaces through urban development plans, disciplinary power,
and bio-power, and using the formal sys tem of spatial planning.
In other words, authorities take advantage of the formal sys tem
of spatial planning, ins trumental rationality, planning rules and
regulations, and raising s tandards, seek to create dualities such
as formal and informal for economic benets.
The results of the present s tudy proved this genealogical
approach. They showed that his torically, the progress of urban
development plans has been in line with the network of power
relations. By rationalizing spatial planning processes at rs t
and using disciplinary power and disciplinary knowledge, they
jus tify their intervention approaches scientically.
In the end, it is sugges ted that urban planners, whether
professors or those working in consulting engineers, ins tead
of using mere ins trumental rationality, pay more attention to
power relations in urban development plans, and the genealogy
and phronetic planning research summarized in this research
both in the urban planning knowledge and urban planning
action. This helps them be more active and inuential in
interaction with power relations and the formal sys tem of
spatial planning. Using practical rationality or phronesis in
interaction and bargaining with power, they do their bes t
to create a human discourse and achieve another type of
development. For the Abkooh neighborhood, it is sugges ted
that the urban management complex recognize the residents'
right to the city and right to s tay in the Abkooh neighborhood.
Ins tead of pursuing a policy of social exclusion, seek to improve
their neighborhood quality of life. Also, to achieve economic
benets in the neighborhood and compensate for some of its
inves tments, the acquired lands should be exis ted from the
frozen mode by clarifying their ownership land documents by
negotiating the semi-governmental organizations and s tarting
cons tructions with the partnership of the private section.
ENDNOTES
1.Foucault believes that to analyze power, we mus t eliminate the legal-
political theory of sovereignty because it does not represent reality. The
written legal rules and regulations are derived from power.
2. In 1656, a law was issued to es tablish the Paris General Hospital
with the aim of "preventing begging and unemployment as the source
of all disorder." According to this law, people without an income and
without social aliation who were wandering in the city, regardless
of gender, age, health, and social class, were arres ted and sent to
the hospital. This public hospital was not a medical ins titution but a
quasi-judicial organizational hospital, an adminis trative ins titution
that, along with other present powers and outside the courts, made
decisions, judgments, and executions.
3.Although this s tatis tic belongs to 2010, the high age of residential
parts indicates that the share of the mentioned percentages is acceptable
with a slight dierence.
4.Sajjad neighborhood is near Abkooh neighborhood and is one of the
mos t prosperous neighborhoods in Mashhad, with many commercial
units and complexes. Therefore, it has a s trategic economic position
in Mashhad.
REFERENCES
Brenner, N. (2011). In: Brenner, N., Marcuse, P., & Mayer, M.
Cities for People, Not for Prot Critical Urban Theory and the
Right to the City. 1s t Edition, London: Routledge Pub. (https://doi.
org/10.4324/9780203802182)
Burr, V. (2015). Social Cons tructionism. 3rd Edition, London:
Routledge Pub. (https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315715421)
30
International Journal of Architecture and Urban Development
Vol.12, No. 2, Spring 2022
Deputy of Urban Planning and Architecture. (2016). Abkooh
Urban Life Improvement and Renovation Project, Khorasan Central
Adminis tration Oce of Roads and Urban Development.
Farnahad Consulting Engineers in Urban Planning and Architecture.
(2013). Abkooh Urban Life Quality Improvement Project, Mashhad:
Deputy of Urban Planning.
Farnahad Consulting Engineers of Urban Planning and Architecture.
(2006). Third Comprehensive Development Plan of Mashhad,
Mashhad: Deputy of Urban Planning.
Foucault, M. (1995). Discipline and punish. (A. Sheridan, Trans.).
(2nd ed.). New York: Vintage Books. (Original work published 1978).
New York: Plenum Press.
Foucault, M. (1964). His tory of Madness (A His tory of Insanity in
the Age of Reason). (J. Murphy & J. Khalfa, Trans.), Librairie Plon,
London: Routledge Pub.
Foucault, M. (2003). Society Mus t Be Defended": Lectures at the
Collège de France, 1975-1976 (Michel Foucault Lectures at the
Collège de France), Firs t edition, New York: Picador Pub.
Foucault, M. (2008). The Birth of Biopolitics: Lectures at the Collège
de France, 1978-1979. (G. Burchell, Trans.). New York: Picador Pub.
(https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230594180)
Foucault, M. (1972). Archeology of knowledge. (S. Smith, Trans.).
London: Vintage Pub.
Flyvbjerg, B., & Richardson, T. (2002). Planning and Foucault:
In Search of the Dark Side of Planning Theory. In Allmendinger,
Philip (ed.): Tewdwr-Jones, Mark (ed.) (Ed.), Planning Futures: New
Directions for Planning Theory Spon press.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2002). Bringing Power to Planning Research: One
Researcher's Praxis Story. Journal of Planning Education and Research,
21)4(, 353-366. (https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0739456X0202100401)
Goonewardena, K. (2011). In: Brenner, N., Marcuse, P., & Mayer,
M. Cities for People, Not for Prot Critical Urban Theory and the
Right to the City. 1s t Edition, London: Routledge Pub. ( (https://doi.
org/10.4324/9780203802182)
Hardt, M. & Negri, A. (2000). Empire, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press. (https://doi.org/10.14288/clogic.v6i0.192630)
Islamic City Council of Mashhad. (2020). feasibility package for
repairing, renovating, and improving the urban decay of Abkooh
neighborhood approved 2020/6/30, Mashhad: Author.
Khazeni Urban Planning Consulting Engineers. (1971). The rs t
(comprehensive) development plan of Mashhad: Deputy of Urban
Planning.
Lefebvre, H. (2003). The Urban Revolution. (R. Bononno, Trans.),
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Marcuse, P. (2011). In: Brenner, N., Marcuse, P., & Mayer, M.
Cities for People, Not for Prot Critical Urban Theory and the
Right to the City. 1s t Edition, London: Routledge Pub. (https://doi.
org/10.4324/9780203802182)
Mehrazan Consulting Engineers of Urban Planning and Architecture.
(1991). Second Development and Development (Comprehensive) Plan
of Mashhad, Mashhad: Deputy of Urban Planning.
Nikpour, A. & Hassan Alizadeh, M. (2020). Analysis of the adaptation
degree of urban decay areas with areas of poverty zones (Case s tudy:
Ghaemshahr city). Journal of Physical Development Planning, 5(17),
45-60.
Philo, C. (2000). In Crang, M. & Thrift, N. J, Thinking Space, London:
Routledge. (https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203411148)
Poorahmad, A. & Zarei, J. (2015). Assessing the quality of life in the
area of urban decay, Case s tudy: Dis trict 9 of Tehran. Journal of Urban
Research and Planning, 6(21), 1-18.
Pourmohammadi, M., Sadr Mousavi, M., & Abedini, A. (2015).
Evaluating the policies of organizing urban decay in the city of Urmia
and prioritize the exis ting challenges using the network analysis
process (ANP model). Journal of Geography and Planning, 19 (53),
69-92.
Sarvar, R. (2011). Inves tigation of urban decay capacities and its
empowerment (Case s tudy: Bafgh city). Scientic and Research
Quarterly of the Geographical Society of Iran, 9 (31), 101-124.
Saeedi Rezvani, H. (2006). The Evolution of Yes terday's Villages in
Today's Cities, Emerging Types of Informal Settlement; The Case of
Abkooh Cas tle in Mashhad, Geographical Research Quarterly, 21 (82),
64-82.
Sayyafzadeh, A. (2019). Performance of urban management
in regeneration urban decay: A case s tudy: dis trict 19 of Tehran
Metropolitan Municipality. Journal of Geography (Regional Planning),
3 (9), 275-291.
Schmid, C. (2011). In: Brenner, N., Marcuse, P., & Mayer, M.
Cities for People, Not for Prot Critical Urban Theory and the
Right to the City. 1s t Edition, London: Routledge Pub. (https://doi.
org/10.4324/9780203802182)
Shahre Zibaye Khavaran consulting engineers. (2020). Service
description report of Abkooh Saadabad neighborhood development
oce, Mashhad: Urban Spaces Regeneration Organization.
Slater, T. (2011). In: Brenner, N., Marcuse, P., & Mayer, M. Cities
for People, Not for Prot Critical Urban Theory and the Right
to the City. 1s t Edition, London: Routledge Pub. (https://doi.
org/10.4324/9780203802182)
Statis tics Center of Iran. (2016). General Population and Housing
Census, Mashhad: Statis tics Center of Iran.
Said, E. (2003). Orientalism in Ashcroft. B., Griths. G., & Tin. H.,
(Eds.), The Pos t-Colonial Studies Reader. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Veissi, F., Moradi, A., Diwani, A., (2020). Comparison of sus tainable
urban regeneration capacity in neighborhoods with dilapidated and
informal urban context (Case s tudy: Marivan city). Geographical
Research in Urban Planning, 1 (8), 45-71.
Yiftachel, O. (2011). In: Brenner, N., Marcuse, P., & Mayer, M.
Cities for People, Not for Prot Critical Urban Theory and the
Right to the City. 1s t Edition, London: Routledge Pub. (https://doi.
org/10.4324/9780203802182)
© 2022 by author(s); licensee IJAUD Science and Research Branch Islamic Azad University, This work for open access publication
is under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
