Production and Reproduction of Space within the Context of Mountain Commodification: An Analysis of Selected Areas in Eastern Iran

The commodification of mountain spaces represents a significant manifestation of transformation in the political economy of space, a process that has intensified over the past two decades in Iran, particularly in the eastern regions of the country. Through this process, mountains are transformed from ecological and cultural landscapes with use value into arenas for capital accumulation endowed with exchange value. This study seeks to understand the mechanisms of the production and reproduction of space under conditions of mountain commodification by examining selected mountainous areas in the counties of Birjand, Mashhad, and Torghabeh–Shandiz. In contrast to much of the existing literature, which primarily focuses on the environmental or social consequences of these transformations, this research centers on the processes and mechanisms through which mountain space is produced and reproduced. The theoretical framework integrates Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space with debates on the commodification of nature, emphasizing the roles of the state, the market, and local communities in shaping these dynamics. Methodologically, the study is grounded in naturalistic inquiry and adopts a mixed inductive–deductive approach, employing thematic analysis to identify core patterns and meanings. Data were collected through long-term in-depth field observations, semi-structured interviews, and the analysis of development documents and official discursive texts. Data analysis followed the five-stage analytical framework proposed by DePoy and Gitlin (2015). The findings indicate that mountain commodification is a multilayered and relational process arising from the interaction of five key forces: the dominance of market logics, the aestheticization and symbolic reconfiguration of mountain landscapes, neoliberal governance, the exclusion of local communities, and urban–infrastructural development pressures. Infrastructure investment, land-use change, and state-led legal–spatial engineering have collectively transformed mountains from use-value-oriented spaces into sites of capital accumulation and exchange value. The study ultimately underscores the necessity of articulating a “right to the mountains” and calls for a critical rethinking of power relations, property regimes, and hegemonic development discourses to advance spatial justice.
 
Extended Abstract
 
Introduction
The commodification of mountain spaces has emerged as a key arena of spatial appropriation and transformation, incorporating natural landscapes into market circuits and endowing them with exchange value. Driven primarily by tourism, real estate investment, and market-oriented environmental uses, this process reshapes mountains into economic assets, often privileging commercial interests over ecological sustainability and social justice, while eroding local cultures and use value. Since the early 2000s, Iran’s mountain regions particularly in eastern Iran have entered a new phase of transformation. Once regarded as marginal spaces, these areas have become targets of intensive investment, facilitated by infrastructural development, tourism zoning, second-home expansion, and speculative land transactions. The interaction of these forces has turned the region into a laboratory of spatial transformation, where competing land uses continuously redefine mountain landscapes. While existing studies largely emphasize the outcomes of these changes, less attention has been paid to the mechanisms that produce and reproduce commodified mountain spaces. Addressing this gap, the present study integrates Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space with debates on the commodification of nature to examine how state interventions, market logics, and local practices interact to reproduce mountain spaces along capital-oriented trajectories in eastern Iran.
 
Methodology
Methodologically, this study is based on a naturalistic inquiry framework and employs a mixed inductive–deductive approach. Data analysis was conducted through thematic analysis, which DePoy and Gitlin (2015) conceptualize as an interpretive and context-sensitive approach for identifying patterns of meaning within qualitative data. The empirical data were generated through long-term in-depth observations, semi-structured interviews with local residents and managers, and document and discourse analyses of development plans, tourism policy documents, official reports, media interviews, and investment-oriented promotional materials related to mountain areas in the two provinces examined. In line with the study’s critical–interpretive and spatial perspectives, data analysis followed the five-stage analytical process proposed by DePoy and Gitlin (2015). Initial statements, informed partly by Lefebvre and Harvey’s theoretical perspectives on the production and transformation of social space and partly emerging from the empirical data beyond these frameworks, were identified and coded. These codes were subsequently organized into primary and secondary themes and analytically integrated into higher levels of abstraction, leading to the identification of key spatial themes that explain the processes underlying the production and reproduction of commodified mountain spaces. Spatial analysis and mapping were conducted using ArcGIS Pro based on shapefiles obtained from the Provincial Management and Planning Organization.
 
Results and Discussion
Spatial analysis of selected mountainous areas in eastern Iran, including the administrative jurisdictions of Birjand, Mashhad, and Torqabeh–Shandiz counties, reveals that commodification, as a fundamental mechanism in the expansion and reproduction of capitalism, has acquired a complex and multidimensional form within mountain landscapes. This process has been increasingly reinforced through the cyclical production and reproduction of space. The findings demonstrate that the interaction among five interconnected forces, including the dominance of market-oriented logic, the aestheticization and symbolic representation of mountain spaces, neoliberal governance, the marginalization of local communities, and urban–infrastructural development pressures, has collectively contributed to the formation and stabilization of commodified mountain landscapes. The penetration of market logic into mountain areas has been primarily manifested through investments in accessibility infrastructure, such as road networks, tourism corridors, and communication systems. As emphasized by Harvey (2006) and Lefebvre (1991), these infrastructures operate as spatial mechanisms that facilitate capital circulation and integrate landscapes into accumulation processes. In the studied regions, infrastructural expansion has encouraged capital inflows, villa development, and speculative tourism activities, subsequently accelerating land-use transformations toward residential and profit-oriented functions and reinforcing the conversion of land into a tradable commodity, as previously discussed by Smith (1984) and Messerli and Ives (1989). Furthermore, the commodification of mountain spaces has been closely associated with transformations in state practices, particularly through the reconfiguration of property relations and the institutional legitimization of capital expansion into mountainous territories. This process corresponds to the concept of legal–spatial engineering discussed by Blomley (1994), Scott (1998), Elden (2007), Delaney (2010), and Peluso and Lund (2011), whereby regulatory and spatial interventions become embedded within developmental discourses. Consequently, mountains are increasingly constructed as new investment frontiers within geographical space, extending the territorial reach of capital accumulation into previously marginal landscapes.
 
Conclusion
The commodification of mountain landscapes extends beyond an environmental issue and represents a broader manifestation of structural transformations within the political economy of space. Driven by the combined influence of commodification processes and neoliberal development policies, capital has increasingly appropriated mountain spaces and subjected them to market-oriented logics that transform these landscapes into consumable commodities for tourism, recreation, and real estate development. In response to these dynamics, this study emphasizes the necessity of reclaiming a “right to the mountains,” conceptualized as a pursuit of spatial justice in highland regions against processes that commodify, privatize, and enclose mountain spaces. Realizing such a right requires a fundamental transformation in the dominant power relations, property arrangements, and development narratives that shape the production of mountain spaces. Without addressing these underlying structural conditions, attempts to mitigate the environmental and social consequences of mountain commodification will remain fragmented and inadequate.