Who is Entitled to Oppose Planning Decisions? Politics of Rightful Resistance in Tehran

Abstract

People's oppositions to planning decisions are on the rise even in exclusionary-repressive systems. However, in such contexts, decades of dismantling social networks, repressing the circulation of information, and criminalising dissent make oppositions short-lived, fragile, and risky. Rightful resistance, studies suggest, presents a modality of contestation which mitigates such risks. This paper seeks to contribute to the literature on this modality, focusing on, first, the intermeshed and co-evolving relations of the rightful resisters and different sections of the state in the context of contingent citizenship, and second, the interactions of rightful resisters with the larger community. Through a detailed analysis of a case study of rightful resistance in Tehran, the paper complicates the often one-sided narratives of improvisation of individuals that the literature depicts. More importantly, the paper reveals the possibilities that such modalities of contestation reproduce, reinforce, and re-affirm the exclusionary-repressive practices of the state.