It analyzes alternative, non-official ways of forming cultural spaces in Tehran and the way they resist formally endorsed culture. Cafés, bookshops and galleries, each take various and different sets of strategies to constitute their territory and their communities within the city.
I: Introduction.- II: ‘The Quiet Encroachment of the Ordinary’.- Resistance in the city and theories of civil resistance.- City as a ground for plays of power.- Tehran: Power and resistance in the city.- The everyday practice of resistance in the city.- The use of space: Cultural resistance and its allegories in Tehran.- Possibilities and platforms of cultural resistance in Tehran.- III: The Types.- III.1. Alternative Bookshops.- Introduction.- Historiography.- Genealogy of the independent and alternative bookshops in Tehran.- Conflict of capitalism and culture.- Official and alternative bookshops: State-run, Independent, Unofficial and alternative (second-hand) and street.- Underground bookshops (second-hand and street booksellers) as a space of resistance.- Bookshop as a cultural platform for events and actions.- The community of independent underground bookshops.- A map of alternative bookshops in Tehran.- Spatial arrangements of alternative bookshops.- List of Case studies.- III.2. Alternative Cafés.- Introduction.- Historiography of the café in the modernised Tehran.- Genealogy of café as a space of resistance.- Alternative Café, and Coffee Shop.- A map of alternative cafés in Tehran.- Social coordinates of alternative café.- Café as a space of resistance.- Semiotics of architectural elements in café.- Endurance and instability of alternative cafés.- List of Case studies.- III.3. Domestic Art Gallery.- Introduction.- housing the alternative art gallery.- A map of galleries in Tehran.- List of case studies.- Notes.- Bibliography.-Image Credits.