Parallel modernization and self-colonization: Urban evolution and practices in Bangkok and Tehran

This paper compares the urban evolution of two non-western primate capital cities, Bangkok and Tehran and the way their elites, through self-colonization, have adopted and implemented urban practices from more developed countries, perceiving them as their main path toward modernization. Urban history, morphology as well as implemented planning ideas and their impacts across the two cities are compared. The paper concludes that while these cities share many similar urban problems, their eccentricities and particularities are also important evidences of diverse, plural modernities.

► We compared the urban evolution of capital cities in two developing countries.
► Ruling elites in both societies pursued modernization through the process of self-colonization.
► These historical trajectories impacted and resulted in particular local modernities.