Commodification of Nature in “the North”: Historical Mechanisms and Socio-economic Implications

During the mid-1960s, automobiles turned from a luxury item only enjoyed by the well-to-do into a more or less necessary commodity of urban life. Since then, the northern cities of Iran adjacent to the Caspian Sea became a main tourist attraction. To many middle and upper middle class families, “the North” gradually became synonymous to “the Nature”, an outlet to temporarily escape the “civilized” urban life with its dreary and monotonous pace. This shift indicated the discovery, or rather, the invention of a new moment in urban life: leisure time. What made this shift possible was the emerging “organization of labor” – especially in the cities – with two characteristics: the growth of industrial and commercial petty bourgeoisie created by the relative economic boom; and the making of a new government employed, salaried middle class as a by-product of the growing state bureaucracy. This “organization of labor” had a deep impact on the everyday urban life.One could now speak of daily working hours, working days, as separate from weekends and “holidays” in need of planning to be “filled in” with activities. The entertainment industry gradually emerged as a response to this new need and “the North” became its mecca.The natural and local life of the North underwent a radical transformation as a result of the booming tourism. Real state capital took advantage of the privatization of the beach and forest to shift land use from agriculture to housing, “filling” the “empty” spaces with housing complexes for commercial use. At the same time, bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie filled the entire beach with shopping malls, covered with advertisement and brand names. The combined impact of these two processes is what I call “commodification of nature” by capital. The local ecology and lifestyle are radically transformed, turning the social space of “the North” into a de facto “consumption colony”. This essay endeavors to investigate the historical mechanisms, and the socio-economic consequences, of this process of “urbanization of nature”. Methodologically, it focuses on critique of political economy of this great transformation in post-revolutionary Iran.