Spatiality of Street Vending Informal Places and Gendered Public Spaces in Tehran

List of figures and tables
Acknowledgements

Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Urban informality and the spatial turn
1.3. Place, public space, and the unfinished city
1.4. Political context and the governance of public space
1.5. Aim and scope of the book
1.6. Structure of the book
1.7. Conclusion
Chapter 2. Street Vending: How Far Have We Come?
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Gender
2.3. Typologies and types
2.4. Spatiality of street vending and public space design
2.5. Policy environment
2.6. Agency
2.7. Links to other forms of informality
2.8. Conclusion
Chapter 3. Methodological Framework
3.1. Introduction
3.2. Research design
3.3. Theoretical lens
3.4. Case study selection
3.5. Research methods
Chapter 4: Tehran
4.1. Introduction
4.2. The evolution of Tehran
4.3. Urban morphology and mix
4.4. Gendered public spaces
4.5. Urban informality in Tehran
4.6. Conclusion
Chapter 5. Appropriating Public Space in the Urban Core: The Case of Saadi Station Area
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Analysis and discussion
5.3. Conclusion
Chapter 6. Negotiating Public Space in Eastern Tehran: The Case of Sarsabz Station Area
6.1. Introduction
6.2. Analysis and discussion
6.3. Conclusion
Chapter 7. Discussion and Conclusion
7.1. Introduction
7.2. Urban informality and governance
7.3. Gendered public space and urban informality
7.4. Street vending and urban life vitality
7.5. Street vending and the limits of formal urban planning
7.6. Implications for urban design thinking and practice

References
Index

Biography

Nastaran Peimani is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Urban Design, the Leader of the Urbanism Research Group, and the Co‑Founding Director of the Public Space Observatory Research Centre at Cardiff University. Since 2021, she has served as the Co‑Director of the MA Urban Design programme at the Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University. Her research primarily focuses on the intersections of urban design, the built environment, urban mobilities, and forms of informality. Her current research interests include the spatiality of street vending, public space and urbanity, transit‑oriented urbanism, urban morphology, urban mapping, and urban design education and pedagogy. She is the Associate Editor of International Planning Studies and an editorial board member of Urban Design and Planning and Sage Open. She is the co‑editor of The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods (Routledge, 2023) and co‑author of Urban Design Education (Edward Elgar, 2025).

Hesam Kamalipour is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Urban Design and Co‑Founding Director of the Public Space Observatory Research Centre at Cardiff University, where he previously served as Co‑Director of the MA Urban Design programme. His work lies at the intersections of urban design, informal urbanism, public space, urban morphology, and comparative urbanism. He is the lead co‑editor of The Routledge Handbook of Urban Design Research Methods (Routledge, 2023) and lead co‑author of Urban Design Education (Edward Elgar, 2025). He is currently authoring a forthcoming monograph titled Informal Design (Routledge) and a further book titled Framing Urbanism (Palgrave Macmillan). He serves as Associate Editor of Frontiers in Sustainable Cities – Cities in the Global South and is an editorial board member of Cities, Habitat International, Journal of Urban Management, Urban Design and Planning, The Journal of Public Space, Planning Practice & Research, International Journal of Architectural Research, and Urban Planning.