ABSTRACT
A recurrent theme of the preceding chapters has been the sketchiness of present knowledge and understanding of the Middle Eastern city, at least as represented in the writings of Western geographers and other social scientists. Urban studies conducted by Middle Easterners and published in local languages are an increasingly rich source of information and ideas, but they are similarly unable to provide any answers to many of the outstanding questions. Workers both within and from outside the Middle East are faced with the same difficulties. Data analysis and interpretation is hampered by the paucity of official statistics, lack of adequate cartographic material, and often by bureaucratic controls. Concepts derived from research into Western cities are found to be inappropriate when applied to the Middle East. A typical example is the problem of defining unemployment, with the result that misleading figures are often cited showing low levels of unemployment, when the reality is otherwise. Bartsch’s pilot survey of employment in a poor district of Iran showed that over 70 per cent of all the economically active population were either unemployed, in disguised employment, or intermittently employed, far in excess of official estimates. 1
