IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envirc/v43y2025i3p540-557.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Spatial politics and struggle for hegemony: The role of Komala in the revolutionary movement of Iranian Kurdistan

Author

Listed:
  • Hamed Saidi

Abstract

The question of Kurds in Iran is a political as well as a regional issue. By applying the Gramscian spatial perspective, this paper examines how the socialist movement in Iranian Kurdistan has rethought and reshaped the collective identities of the Kurds through spatially collective mobilization. While “private spaces†were central for Komala as sites of group formation and political underground activities, after the fall of the Shah in 1979, the opening up of public spaces was of crucial importance for Komala to transform from a small organization to a social and influential current. The production and use of the public spaces enabled Komala to establish associational ties among subordinate social groups through strengthening a collective identity and political ideology. For Komala, the territoriality of the Kurdish region has been historically formed by class conflicts and class-relevant social relations in conjunction with the national question (self-determination for Kurdistan), and in relation to a specific spatial location in place, space, and scale.

Suggested Citation

  • Hamed Saidi, 2025. "Spatial politics and struggle for hegemony: The role of Komala in the revolutionary movement of Iranian Kurdistan," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 43(3), pages 540-557, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:43:y:2025:i:3:p:540-557
    DOI: 10.1177/23996544241269074
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23996544241269074
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/23996544241269074?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envirc:v:43:y:2025:i:3:p:540-557. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.