Cultural mapping in a Middle Eastern city: insights from Rasht’s culture-led regeneration

Abstract

This paper examines how residents and visitors experience cultural assets in Rasht, Iran, following a major programme of culture-led regeneration linked to the city’s UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy designation. Addressing a gap in research on Middle Eastern cities, the study uses mixed-method cultural mapping combining an online survey of 128 residents and tourists with fieldwork observations across key public and heritage spaces. The findings show that participants valued walkable regenerated areas, cultural continuity, and vibrant social interaction, particularly in central public spaces. However, the study also reveals uneven cultural investment, underused historic neighbourhoods, and tensions between officially promoted cultural identities and everyday cultural practices. The paper argues that cultural mapping offers a useful approach for understanding lived cultural experience and identifying gaps between regeneration policy narratives and everyday urban life in governance-constrained contexts.