Spatial Justice, Social Perception, and the Psychopolitics of Urban Inequality in the Global South: A Critical Review from the Iranian Context

This critical review explores the intersection of spatial justice, social perception, and psychopolitics in urban inequality, focusing on the underrepresented context of Iran as part of the Global South. Drawing from social and political psychology, the article situates spatial injustice within broader socio-economic and historical forces that structure inequality and shape citizens' psychological responses. By synthesising global and regional literature, the paper highlights how marginalised urban groups internalise systemic inequities through processes of social comparison, symbolic exclusion, and everyday experience of deprivation. The review reveals how Western psychological models often reproduce ideological biases that obscure structural mechanisms of injustice, calling for decolonial approaches attentive to local voices and socio-cultural contexts. A psychopolitical perspective is proposed to integrate emotional and political dimensions of space, power, and identity, illuminating how perceptions of fairness, belonging, and control influence civic behaviour and political legitimacy. The paper concludes with applied implications for social policy, participatory urban planning, and the advancement of critical social psychology in the Global South.

کلیدواژه ها:

Spatial justice ، Psychopolitics ، Urban inequality ، Global South