On February, I wrote a blog on tea and coffee consumption in Tehran and tried to briefly show how Iran’s capital has been polarised based on the urban spatial distribution of teahouses and coffee shops as well as the social, cultural, and economic features of regulars of each consumption space. On that post, I concluded that two main narratives are growing in parallel in Tehran; conservative and liberal, and each of which are presenting a way of urban living. Whilst tea urbanism represents an old, long-established, traditional way of living in cities, its counterpart, coffee urbanism, manifests a new, fledgling, modern one. However, as I did not have detailed knowledge on coffee urbanism and new urban people who are frequenting cafes, I decided to investigate more about them. In this regard, several months ago, I was in Tehran, doing my fieldwork on coffee consumption and the mushrooming cafes in that city. As my approach involved qualitative methods, i.e. direct observations and semi-structured interviews, I had to sit in cafes and coffee shops, watch people, observe their interactions and ask them some questions. Nevertheless, among numerous observations I had, those that attracted me the most were young couples and lovers dating in cafes, tattooed smoking girls, and taking selfies. In almost all cafes where smoking is allowed young girls and guys are sitting smoking. Girls also seemed to love taking selfies with funny gestures while having something to drink. However, a question that comes into my mind is why cafes are suitable for doing such things.
Cafe societies of Tehran. Photo by Reza Shaker Ardekani. Tehran, July 2015
Why Cafés are such important places?
Now as I am re-listening to the interviews I have made, I guess one of my interviewees has alertly answered this question when she says “…it does not matter for us if the taste of this espresso is bitter or sour, if its bean is Arabica or Robusta, if it is an ordinary coffee or a specialty coffee, if it is coming from Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia or India; for us the space is important; a coffeehouse provides us a good space to be ourselves without being monitored and seen by people…who do not think, wear, talk, walk, and interact like us; it gives us a haven away from people who are not us… Coffee is not our first drink, you know; we even may be ordering tea in coffeehouses; it does not matter at all what we are ordering; as long as we are ourselves here, we are happy here… In places like this, you may see guys and girls with tattoos, piercings and colourful clothes, guys with long beard and hair, girls without headscarves and shaved heads, homosexuals, and, of course, many couples and young lovers… we respect each other; the only thing we want is that they respect us too… I don’t think it would be a big deal.”
Cafe societies of Tehran. Photo by Reza Shaker Ardekani. Tehran, July, 2015
It is really interesting how she was constantly using words like self/us/other. But a question which may be raised here again is why their ‘self’ would drag them to cafes. In other words, what is in their self which cafes can be in harmony with? Broadly speaking, a self would be (re)formed through consciousness, awareness, an interpretation of the world, and, in general, through a mentality. It seems, in a sense, that cafe-goers have absorbed new knowledge and shaped a fresh interpretation of the world. Nevertheless, it goes without saying that for having new knowledge new ways and sources of information would be crucial. In this respect, they have access to new information sources, which are different from long-established datasets which common people are using. This may be coming from what Castells calls the ‘network society‘. Learning new languages such as English, German as well as French, having academic educations, constant contact with the Internet and social media, e.g. Facebook and Tweeter, satellite TVs, lack of trust to their national media, and the ability and courage of questioning long-established sociocultural values, have helped them to be open to another consciousness and through that to form a new self.
The established society’s conventional source of data. Photo by Reza Shaker Ardekani, Tehran, July 2015
A three-dimensional culture: Persian, Islamic and Western?
On the other hand, as they are investing in their cultural capital, they are forming a new identity. The interesting point, however, is that since they are absorbing information from different data sources, their identity seems to be a combination of three dominant cultures: Persian, Islamic, and Western ones. They admire their Persian glorious history; they respect and appreciate Islamic morality even if they have grown up in a secular family; and, finally, they desire to experience some sociocultural aspects of the west as well. In this regard, it seems that while trying different paths in order to find their ways through the world, pathfinders are combining these discourses and practicing some new social behaviours which have never been bold and observable in urban spaces before. In addition, although they are all sharing a bricolage, eclectic, cherry-picked identity in common, however, via their emphasis on one or two of the dominant cultures, they seem to be shaping several subcultures. For instance, a group of pathfinders may highlight its Persian fascination via some elements in their appearance such as specific necklaces, earrings, T-shirts and shawls decorated with poems in Persian calligraphy, etc.
Eclectic taste and fashion in cafes. Photo by Reza Shaker Ardekani, Tehran, July 2015
Conflicts over the self
By the same token, these huge flows of information need to be processed and shown. In this sense, the self plays a dual role: as a subject (I), and as an object (ME). As a subject, the self stands as the centre of the universe, everything rotates around it, and everything also ends in it. It is engaged with an ongoing process of consciousness; here the self is pure ego, the knower, the thinker. Differently put, the self absorbs information, processes it, and presents the outcomes. The results could be a mentality, lifestyle, identify, and ideology. So far, however, almost everything has happened within the mind; but abstract ideas for actualisation need to be visualised and come to fore. In order to do so, the self pays close attention to surfaces which are under its power such as leisure pastimes, eating and drinking preferences, home, car, choices of holidays, choices of outlets, etc. Nevertheless, ‘body’ as the most accessible domain for showing the processed outcomes of information becomes a vital surface and turns into a crucial principle of identity.
On the other hand, the self presupposes a social process. As Mead argues body is not a self and only becomes a self when a mind has developed. But the general mechanism for the self is its reflexivity, and it leads towards the development of self-consciousness through social interactions. As a result of this, people can examine themselves. Differently put, in order to have selves, you must get outside of yourself and evaluate yourself, so that you can become an object to yourself. Notwithstanding, the self-examined self still should be legitimised by an ‘other’ in order to get accepted or at least tolerated by the society. Simply put, the existence of an other allows the possibility or recognition of a self. In other words, a self requires an other to be selfed. At this point, ME is evaluated by either the I or by an other or even by both if it does not want to cast away. Otherwise, it has to make the society accepts it via finding similar selves in particular spaces.
Surfaces presented to an other. Photo by Reza Shaker Ardekani, Tehran, July 2015
Accordingly, Persian pathfinders through their new sources of information as well as their academic background are gaining new thinking appliances, and, as a result, a new mentality, lifestyle, identify, and/or ideology. As said earlier, this self needs to be visualised (un)consciously and body seems to be the easiest way for doing so. In this regard, they may be practicing different social behaviours, different wearing style, different speech and/or vocabulary repertoire, different sexual orientation, premarital sex, smoking habits, tattoos, piercings, loose hijab, and, in general, close attention to their bodies. Via doing so, they are not only actualising their mentalities but are also claiming a new right to their bodies as the carrier of the self and as the main arena for practicing personal freedom. By the same token, through monitoring and controlling the body, they are conveying a distinct self; and, in order to legitimise their self, it needs to be seen, recognised, evaluated, and accepted, or at least tolerated, by an other. On the other hand, this other should not necessarily see the self directly but also virtually and through social media such as Facebook and Instagram. In this regard, it seems that the popularity of taking selfies by pathfinders in cafes has something to do with the process of self-legitimisation and self-verification.
Self-legitimisation of self – Reza Shaker Ardekani, Tehran, July 2015
In addition, the presented self should be evaluated by the examiner other who has to be familiar [not necessarily consciously] with the possible surfaces of the self; otherwise, the self would be rejected by the other. In this regard, as the old society (working-, traditional-middle- and, to some extent, conservative, old-money classes and not the new-middle- and new-money classes with high investment in their cultural capital and liberal mentalities) still has its own conventional data sources and reads the world through its conservative social values, pathfinders’ self principally cannot be understood by the tea society and get rejected. Nevertheless, a self based on an other (self/other binary) is not necessarily defined consciously, but it seems that it is based on what Bourdieu calls as practical logic. In other words, using and frequenting urban cultural spaces for collective expression of their self and identities seem to be a practical way for forcing society to legitimise or tolerate them. Furthermore, based on the Birmingham School, subcultures for finding solutions of their problems with the dominant culture need to generate their own urban cultural spaces. In this sense, the new selves/pathfinders, as Lefebvre in his book, the production of space, has already argued, cannot constitute themselves, or recognize one another, as subjects, unless they generate and/or claim a space for their self.
They cannot claim public places such as streets or parks. These urban spaces are wide, unlimited, and of course, with a lot of eyes watching them. Since they desire to escape from the outside social monitoring and be away from the others’ eyes, which cannot understand them, conventional public spaces cannot be suitable for them. Consequently, among limited options they have access to, cafes are the most popular urban spaces for pathfinders. Coffeehouses with special lightning, music, special architecture, decoration, furniture/fixture, limited space, warm, cosy, welcoming, and quiet atmosphere, and away from the others’ eyes all shape a semi-public/semi-private space for them where they would be able to show and practice their self. However, it is not just about the physical aspects of coffeehouses that attract the new urban selves; the sociocultural capacities of consumers seem to be important as well. The circulation of liberal mentality, lifestyle, and identity in the cafes make the people ‘US’. There is almost no other in coffeehouses. Cafes as a society within the Persian society have a specific, unwritten rule: tolerance. A coffee shop is a place where people practice their tolerance. When hand-in-hand boys and girls or a tattooed guys and girls enter a cafe almost no one looks at them; there is no heavy eye on a smoking, loosed-hijab, shaved-head girl; it seems that cafes are the most tolerable public spaces within the context of Persian cities. In these spaces which are away from the conservative social radar pathfinders can practice their self just in front of no-longer-other-but-us and form the coffee society.
Taboo breaking girls. Photo by Reza Shaker Ardekani, Tehran, July 2015
On the other hand, even if they do not intend to do so, pathfinders are standing against dominant cultural policies; the new selves with having different surfaces are mocking the long-established sociocultural values. Coffee urbanism, moreover, ridicules sexual values of the society; a coffee shop girl does not hide her beauty under chador or shawl; she openly expresses her ‘self’; she smokes; she laughs loudly; (although not generally) she has premarital sex; she has tattoos; she is experiencing her womanhood and femininity; she believes in the equality and for her there is almost no difference between her and her boyfriend. Consequently, even if they do not like it, pathfinders are undermining the accepted patriarchal culture and challenging the dominant power and/or ideology. Founded on Gramsci, it can be also argued that frequenting coffeehouses has an invisible but essential meaning for the new selves; for them, going to coffee shops means a symbolic resistance against the dominant society. Differently put, in situations with lack of free expression of thoughts and selves culture becomes politicised and symbolic language and/or indirect voice get widespread. In this regard, goods, leisure activities, music, art, espresso, and, in general, everything that rotates around pathfinders’ self turns into a meaningful political action. Accordingly, even taking a selfie can be translated as resistance.
Conflicts over the self. Photo by Reza Shaker Ardekani, Tehran, July 2015
While pathfinders are (un)consciously fighting to legitimise their interpretation of the world, life, leisure, and social values, coffeehouses suddenly become a Foucauldian heterotopia: a space with several layers of meaning as well as an accessible path which the self can escape from the other. In this sense, via their eclectic fashion and taste, interconnection between global and local (which makes cafes of the most cosmopolitan, diverse urban spaces in Iran), emphasis on leisure and consumption, pathfinders are unconsciously but creatively combining different cultural narratives in order to find or build their path out of the current anomic social situation.
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