Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Journal of Iranian Cultural Research

Consumption, everyday life, and alienation in the 22 Bahman neighbourhood of Kermanshah

Document Type : Scientific Research Manuscript

Authors
Siyavash Gholipour 1
Nader Amiri 1
Bahar Mehr 2
1 Associate Professor in Sociology, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
2 M.A student of Cultural Study, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Science, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
10.22035/jicr.2026.3527.3751
Abstract
This article examines the role of consumption in the everyday life of residents of the 22-Bahman neighbourhood in the metropolis of Kermanshah. The study’s theoretical approach is grounded in Henri Lefebvre’s ideas on everyday life and consumption. The research method is ethnographic, with data collected through direct observation and in-depth interviews. Twenty-five residents were selected through theoretical sampling and interviewed in depth. The findings show that the 22-Bahman was first developed in the early 1960s in the north of Kermanshah and is now one of the city’s most affluent areas. From the mid-1970s onward, earlier consumer spaces located in the old city were gradually relocated here, turning 22-Bahman into the city’s most vibrant consumption hub. Of the 565 shops lining its main streets, 560 are consumption-oriented. In addition, Bargh Street has become an evening showcase for luxury cars that cruise from 7 p.m. until well past midnight. In this context, the food, fashion, automobile, tourism and advertising sub-systems create an ideal environment for consumerism, embedding instability into commodities through planned old-fashion and make-belive. Residents constantly search for ever-new goods, driven by a perpetual compulsion to align with an idealised consumer standard that they regard as social mobility. These sub-systems and their internal mechanisms target the individual’s creative and self-reliant capacities, locating happiness not in self-determination, social solidarity or human interaction but in acquiring commodities that are forever going out of style. Consequently, most consumers remain indifferent to the fate of the city’s poor and marginalised populations.
Keywords
alienation
consumption
everyday life
make-belive
old-fashion
Kermanshah
Subjects
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  • Receive Date 24 September 2025
  • Revise Date 20 February 2026
  • Accept Date 12 April 2026