Characteristics of Transitional Villages in Tehran Metropolitan Area: A Sociological Analysis

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Abstract

Large cities, including Tehran, have structural effects on urban and rural settlements in their vicinities. Some villages near Tehran exhibit special features due to migration effects and associated patterns of life and work. They have gradually become different from more traditional Iranian villages. Calling these rural settlements “transitional villages” and developing a theoretical-conceptual framework for the migration effects exerted on them, we attempt to understand their social and economic features from a sociological perspective. For this, we benefit from a combined set of documentary and field study methods. Our findings indicate that people have migrated to these villages from Tehran, Tehran’s neighboring towns, or other cities. Although migrants have settled in the villages, they work in Tehran’s manufacturing and service sectors. Therefore we may call them “dormitory villages” as well in light of their different and new life and work patterns.

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