The effect of politics on the formation of urban aesthetics, the case of Iran

Abstract

Urban aesthetics is a complicated issue that needs further evaluation of its physical specifications in a city. This article examines urban aesthetics through the historical political patterns and urban planning and development process. The aim is to reveal the relationship between the formation of urban aesthetics, the urban planning process, and the political impact. Iran as the case of a developing country with a different socio-political context and national system is selected for this aim. Path-dependency analysis has been used as a methodology to provide a framework to understand urban aesthetics followed by different socio-political periods and planning processes. Three political periods have been selected for analysis in which the country gained most of its unprecedented changes in political, and social aspects. Analysis results demonstrated that urban aesthetics is more dependent on the political path dependency than the planning process while still the same planning approaches have been carried out in the country. © 2022 Elsevier Ltd