Thesis (M.S.)--Dānishgāh-i Tihrān, 1973. / Cover title.

Women's role in contemporary Iranian economy has either been ignored or portrayed as suppressed by the state's so-called "Islamic" ideologies and policies. This thesis argues that while the post-revolutionary state's Islamization attempted to create a particular gender system that excludes women from the labour market, it has proved to be unsuccessful. This imposed gender system has failed to achieve its goals due to both unstable economic conditions and through the active role women have played in opposing this set of ideologies. Concurrently, Iranian women have confirmed themselves as income-earning and economically productive individuals, contributing to the social and economic well being of their families as well as their country. The field study herein focuses on a sample of these economically active women, including both formally employed women and women who have set up (informal) businesses at home. It is argued that both groups of women contribute significant monetary income to the household and consequently to the economic and social development of their nation. In doing so they also challenge state ideologies and policies that restrict their economic and social role.

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Background Stigma and discrimination because of medical conditions is a global phenomenon. Epilepsy and mental illness belong to the most stigmatizing disorders world-wide. Culture, religion, education, life-style influences the perception of stigma. There are two aspects of stigma of special interest for this thesis; internalized stigma, which is the perception of a person suffering from a condition and the public perception of this disorder. This study investigates both aspects of stigma because of mental illness and epilepsy. Internalized stigma of mental illness and epilepsy are also studied in Umea, Sweden, with the same instrument as in Iran in order to look at the cultural influence. Methods Paper 1 and 2 on internalized stigma because of mental disorders and epilepsy in Tehran: These studies are cross-sectional with 138 persons with mental illness recruited from three different hospitals in Tehran and 130 persons with epilepsy from one neurologic clinic in Tehran and the Iran epilepsy association. Internalized stigma because of mental illness was measured using ISMI (Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness) questionnaire and because of epilepsy with the same instrument adapted for epilepsy (ISEP). ISMI/ISEP contains 29 items measured by a 4-point Likert scale. An open-ended question about the experiences of discrimination was added. Paper 3 and 4 on public attitudes towards mental disorders and epilepsy in Tehran: These two studies were performed with 800 individuals randomly chosen from households in four districts of Iran (north, south, east and west). In Paper 3 on attitudes and knowledge of mental illness a modified version of a questionnaire developed for the World Association program to reduce discrimination and stigma because of schizophrenia was used. In Paper 4 on awareness of and attitudes towards epilepsy a questionnaire originally developed by Caveness and Gallup in United States as early as 1949 was used and since used in many studies all over the world. Paper 5 and 6 comparing internalized stigma because of mental disorders and epilepsy in Tehran and Umea: These two studies included patients suffering from mental disorders (N=163) and epilepsy (N=93) recruited from the university hospital in Umea, Sweden. The same questions as used in Paper 1 and 2 were applied. Results The experience of stigma because of mental disorders was high in the Iranian sample. The Swedish sample generally reported lower levels of experienced stigma than the Iranian except for items covering self-blame and feelings of alienation. As regards epilepsy the Iranian sample reported quite a high level of experienced stigma compared to the Swedish sample. Generally the patients with epilepsy reported lower levels of experienced stigma compared to patients with mental illness in the two settings. Attitudes towards mentally ill persons in Tehran were at the same levels as in western high income countries. The knowledge about and attitudes towards persons with epilepsy was also generally at the same level as found in other European studies expect for a much lower acceptance as regards accepting a person with epilepsy to marry someone in the family. Conclusion Stigma because of mental illness and epilepsy is a reality even in Iran, which is an Islamic setting in spite of the teachings of the Koran to show mercy with people who suffer from different ailments and rather well developed health services. The levels of experienced stigma is higher in Iran compared to Sweden, but still there is quite a lot of stigma because of mental illness even in Sweden in spite of several national efforts to reduce stigma. The lower levels of stigma because of epilepsy in both settings and especially in Sweden, is suggested to be the consequence of effective treatments available for epilepsy compared to the less successful treatments available for mental illness. The differences in internalized stigma reported and the public perceptions of stigma because of both mental illness and epilepsy between Iran and Sweden is suggested partly a consequence of the different cultural settings, Sweden being an extremely individualistic society compared to the more collectivistic Iranian society.

Uppsatsnivå: D

In this thesis, the decision analysis process of investigating the best optimal strategy for Tehran water management in 2021 is described. Such process is normally divided into four steps including: structuring the problem; identifying feasible strategies, their impact and uncertainty; quantifying preferences; and evaluation of countermeasures and sensitivity analysis. Here, in order to structure the problem, the characteristics of Tehran with respect to water issues and its history of water management are reviewed. The state of surface waters and ground waters and a description of Tehran plan for waste water treatment are given, the most significant constraints of Tehran water sector are classified and the challenges of climate change and variability are explained. The feasible adaptation strategies are designed subsequently based on that classification, data extracted from a survey and a number of interviews with water officials and managers and ordinary citizens in Tehran. Each strategy contains a series of separate measures with different weights. The phase of quantifying preferences and elucidating utility functions is conducted based on the data available from previous studies and also the current survey. The measures include: installing water saving devices, awareness raising to change citizens’ water consumption pattern, adding new sources of surface water, investing on waste water utilization, migration control and repairing water distribution network.Different combinations of these measures provide different possibilities for formulating adaptation strategies. We compare two more discussed adaptation strategies of the spectrum of strategies; one is inclined toward exploiting more water resources while the other one is more focused on demand management. The former is mainly supported by water officials and the latter advocated by water experts we interviewed. The criteria of comparison are social acceptability, economic feasibility, time-efficiency and environmental tenability. By considering the uncertainty attributed to the criteria weights, the WEB-HIPRE DSS analysis shows that the demand-oriented strategy is the optimal one in most cases, however, if time-efficiency and/or economic feasibility gain very high significance, the strategy of water officials wins over that of experts.

Throughout the urban development process over the last seven decades in Tehran, the capital city of Iran, many self-generated neighbourhoods have developed in which the majority of the residents are low-income families. On one hand, the main spatial attribute of these deprived neighbourhoods is spatial isolation from the surrounding, more affluent areas, which is accompanied by inadequate urban infrastructure and a lack of accessibility and permeability. On the other hand, the Tehran City Revitalisation Organisation - the governmental sector which is in charge of the deprived areas - is incapable of conducting urban regenerations without investment from the private sector, and is seeking methods to create ‘socio-economic stimulant zones’ to attract private sector participation in regeneration programmes. In this regard, this research investigates the notion of ‘spatial isolation’ which in return causes socio-economic isolation as highlighted in the literature. The research suggests that in order to develop feasible regeneration programmes, which can meet the interest of both people and government, and release the deprived area from isolation both spatially and socio-economically, the regeneration plans should focus on public open space developments as ‘socio-economic stimulant zones’. With regard to this idea, the research highlights the street as a ‘social arena’ – not arteries or thoroughfares – as the type of public open space in which its development could not only release the deprived areas from spatial isolation, but could also direct more pedestrian movement to and through the deprived neighbourhoods, making more opportunities for the creation of socio-economic interactions. In this respect, the theory of ‘natural movement’ and theories and literature of ‘integrated public open spaces’ form the theoretical framework of the research to support this idea. For further investigation, two case studies, one as the deprived area and one as the control area, have been chosen, and the spatial pattern of the city and the two cases have been analysed in regard to the notion of ‘spatial isolation’ through Space Syntax using Depthmap software and GIS. Also, the correlation between the distribution pattern of commercial land uses and syntactic measures across the city of Tehran is investigated to identify the potential streets in which to create commercial opportunities. Afterwards, in order to study the street life and the variety of activities the streets can afford, a few locally integrated streets in the deprived case have been chosen. At this stage, nineteen behaviours have been observed and classified in five major classes including the necessary, social, optional, hazardous, and occasional activities, and the correlation with syntactic measures are studied. Moreover, the methods of developing a route filtering system and a transformability index for identifying the most suitable streets for the creation of a pedestrian friendly network are discussed, using an example of a deprived area, integrating it with the surrounding urban fabric to create the ‘socio-economic stimulant zones’. The results show that by identifying the underlying spatial pattern of the urban fabric, it is possible to release the deprived areas from its spatial isolation through developing a street network without causing urban fragmentation. This approach could also form a cost-effective basis for developing a pedestrian friendly street network as one of the ‘socio-economic stimulant zones’, which the Tehran City Revitalisation Organisation is looking for; the type of streets that not only support the necessary activities and transportation, but could also facilitate socio-economic interaction.

Continued water scarcity, flooding, pollution and urbanisation, especially in developing countries, have signified the necessity of renewed exploration of the most appropriate approach to water management. This approach should aim to meet the water requirements in the changing world in a sustainable way. Reviewing the different water approaches that have emerged in the developed countries during the last decades suggests that Adaptive Water Management (AWM) could provide a sustainable route to address the existing complex problems of urban water management through the future. The purpose of this study was to determine whether AWM could be applied to Greater Tehran in order to maximise sustainability and deal with the future uncertainties. The AWM characteristics of polycentric governance, institutional flexibility, and public participation were used to assess the adaptability of the existing water management. The research findings showed that, despite the lack of adaptability in the current Greater Tehran water management, there are positive attitudes towards adaptability among water professionals and the public. The research findings emphasised that the AWM application could be promoted by more participation in various levels of institutional structure. This thesis suggests that if the concept of AWM is applied to Iran, it has the potential to have a significant influence in the current/future water management by promoting technical and institutional performances simultaneously.

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La problématique qui guide cette recherche est la suivante : quelles sont les dimensions principales de l’espace public en Iran et quelles sont les variations de cet espace public entre des quartiers de types ancien, moderne et informel à Téhéran ? Afin de comparer les caractères des espaces publics, nous avons choisi les trois types de quartiers ancien (Bazar), moderne (Shahrak-e-Gharb) et informel (Khak Sefid) présents à Téhéran. L’examen selon la méthode présentée (documents, observations personnelles, questionnaires et interviews), nous a permis de conclure que les réponses obtenues à partir de ces travaux confirment que le quartier du Bazar se caractérise par d’importantes interactions sociales du fait de son rayonnement commercial et religieux, en dépit d’une structure vétuste. Le quartier moderne de Shahrak-e-Gharb assure une fonctionnalité propice à des espaces publics programmés, mais l’omniprésence de l’automobile et l’absence de fonctions supérieures y limitent les échanges à l’échelle du quartier. Enfin, malgré l’absence d’espaces aménagés, le quartier informel de Khak Sefid n’est pas dénué d’interactions sociales. Les enjeux d’aménagement des espaces publics différent donc nécessairement en fonction de leurs caractéristiques physiques, économiques et socio-culturelles propres que nous avons tenté de mettre en évidence dans cette thèse / The problematic that guides this research is as follows: what are the main dimensions of the public space in Iran and what are the variations of this public space between old, modern and informal neighborhoods in Tehran? In order to compare the characters of the public spaces, we chose the 3 types of old neighborhood (Bazar), modern (Shahrak-e-Gharb) and informal (Khak Sefid) present in Tehran. Examination according to the method presented (documents, personal observations, questionnaires and interviews), allowed us to conclude that the answers obtained from this work confirm that the Bazar district is characterized by important interactions, because of its commercial and religious influence, despite its antiquated structure. The modern district of Shahrak-e-Gharb provides functionality for planned public spaces, but the omnipresence of the automobile and the lack of superior functions limit the exchanges on a neighborhood scale. Finally, despite the lack of developed spaces, the informal Khak Sefid neighborhood is not devoid of social interaction. The challenges of planning public spaces therefore necessarily differ according to their specific physical, economic and socio-cultural characteristics that we have tried to highlight in this thesis.