Street Politics

Street Politics: Poor People's Movements in Iran is a non-fiction sociological study by Asef Bayat that examines how ordinary Iranians, under a powerful state, sought to secure livelihoods and basic stability. The book advances a framework of informal, everyday politics—what Bayat terms the "quiet encroachment of the ordinary"—to explain collective action outside formal organizations.

Drawing on historical analysis, archival materials, surveys, interviews, and field observation, the study focuses on urban poor constituencies—including squatters, street vendors, and the unemployed—primarily from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The author's insider vantage in depicting street-level politics in poorer districts of Tehran is also noted.

The work is placed alongside classic analyses of poor people's movements by Frances Fox Piven and Richard Cloward, highlighting comparative dimensions beyond Iran. It addresses the social and political interests of disenfranchised groups during the revolution and reassesses their role in the post-revolutionary period, while engaging the 1979 Iranian Revolution in a broader frame. The approach is grounded in presenting Iran's politics and history from lower-class perspectives and outside dominant paradigms.