A Tourist Destination and Social Hangout or A Showcase of Power and Ideology?An Evaluation of the Valiasr Square Reconstruction Project in Tehran

Public spaces in cities have been conceived as leisure and tourism destinations due to their social and civic roles. Due to economic, political, and managerial factors, many of these spaces in Tehran have become passive and non-social in recent years. Although institutions such as the government and urban management argue that the objective of constructing spaces is to improve social life and tourism, in places such as Valiasr Square, the stagnation of social life is problematic. It seems that one-sided political tendencies toward space as a platform for the government to show its power position have frequently resulted in the elimination or diminution of the share and interest of groups of stakeholders in public space. Social inequality in space efficiency as a result of a biased approach calls into question the meaning of public space as a place belonging to the public. The reasons for the failure of government public spaces such as Valiasr Square can be the lack of full-fledged and inclusive processes to create a common place with an unexpected nature and accessibility to different groups of society. Therefore, social and tourism approaches to public spaces should not be atomistic and need to stay away from partiality. Space should be used as both an object and a tool to dominate and display power. Adopting a holistic approach to space as a common property of power institutions and members of the public and society can provide the possibility of forming citizenship and social life.