Iranian carpets, as cultural and artistic artifacts, possess commercial and economic dimensions and hold historical and social significance. As an indigenous and cultural commodity, carpets in Iran are sociologically the product of collective efforts by actors within the handwoven carpet industry. Researchers explore them as structures embedded in society and as artistic works through personal and psychological lenses. The production and trade of Iranian handwoven carpets flourished in some periods, while in others, their artistic identity became more pronounced. At times, they were treated primarily as utilitarian and commercial goods. This shift in the function and meaning of carpets, particularly during the Pahlavi era, took on a new form due to the direct intervention of the state in the production and trade of handwoven carpets, elevating this historical and cultural phenomenon to a distinctive position in society. The production and trade of carpets underwent significant changes within the context of urban lifestyles. During the Pahlavi era, the privilege of carpet weaving and the impacts this artistic-commercial phenomenon could have in Iran began to change. For example, during the first Pahlavi period, numerous factories for carpet production were established, which restricted the economic activities of non-Iranian merchants. As a result, urban carpets have entered a new phase. Before the Allies entered Iran (September 1941), carpet exports accelerated. During the second Pahlavi period, various aspects of carpets and carpet weaving gained attention, with a focus on their artistic, cultural, and propagandistic elements as expressions of nationalism. The Pahlavi period is significant in carpet history due to the serious entry into global markets and its cultural impacts beyond the country’s borders. One of the developments of this period was the invention of standardized and hygienic carpet looms in the 1970s, which aimed to prevent physical health complications among weavers. At the same time, carpet designers benefited from advancements in industrial printing; they began to create designs with grid patterns. In 1977, the Iranian government established the Carpet Museum of Iran. During this period, the transfer of carpet patterns and designs between different regions of Iran began, and the same trend continued in subsequent periods. Economic developments, along with the withdrawal of multinational companies from production and trade, made the Pahlavi era a period of transformation in Iran’s carpet industry. This article aims to analyze urban carpets as a social and cultural domain during the second Pahlavi period, based on Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory. During the second Pahlavi period, urban carpets served more than just visual purposes; they functioned as a complex network of power dynamics, social distinction, and identity representation. Pierre Bourdieu’s field theory emphasizes that society comprises arenas, each with its own structured space in which actors, capitals, dispositions, and habitus shape the internal dynamics of the field. Accordingly, this research aims to understand how urban carpets functioned as both an instrument and an arena for the reproduction and transformation of social and cultural structures during the period under study. Thus, the following research questions are posed: What factors contributed to the formation of the subfield of urban carpets during the Pahlavi era? What components were influential in identifying and recovering the cultural and symbolic capitals within the subfield of urban carpets during the second Pahlavi period? The present research is the result of library studies and archival investigations, possessing a fundamental nature and falling within the category of qualitative research. The research method is descriptive-analytical. To achieve the research objectives, urban carpets from the second Pahlavi period were selected as case studies and analyzed using Bourdieu’s field theory. The sampling method was purposive and determined based on available specimens that align with the components of the research problem. The present study analyzes urban carpets of the second Pahlavi period based on Bourdieu’s field theory and the social, economic, and cultural complexities governing their formation and transformation. According to Bourdieu’s field theory, it can be argued that the cultural, economic, social, and symbolic capitals of Iranian carpets underwent changes during the Pahlavi era, establishing new relationships with the field of power. Within this framework, Iranian carpets acquired a distinctive position in the field of art, with urban carpets representing the most evident manifestation of this transformation. Various factors, including the economic, social, and cultural capital of different actors (such as the state, capitalists, and citizens), played significant roles in shaping and transforming urban carpets. These factors were so intricately interconnected that they enabled a comprehensive, multidimensional understanding of urban development processes. Over time, Iranian handwoven urban carpets experienced substantial transformations, influenced by encounters with Western art and culture as well as the growth and development of urban societies. These transformations during the second Pahlavi period accelerated under the influence of Western art and modernizing developments in Iranian society, taking on new forms. The Iranian carpet field during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s era was a structured space where various actors operated. The actors included trade and production professionals divided into smaller subgroups like design, weaving, dyeing etc. A newer participant in the carpet field was researchers who acted as active players. The urban carpet field, like any artistic field, had its own specific rules, and activists in the Pahlavi urban carpet field competed to gain power. The Iranian carpet field consisted of smaller subspaces, such as the urban carpet subfield during the Pahlavi period, which possessed its own capitals and actors representing field expansions. Cultural capital has been demonstrated through the establishment of the Carpet Museum, the donation of carpets as symbols of national identity, and various forms of research in the field of carpets, including books, theses, articles, newspapers, and foundational research for making documentaries, all contributing to the expansion of the urban carpet subfield. Regarding symbolic capital, one can refer to weaving orders from the royal court, the weaving of exquisite carpets for the coronation hall, and participation in domestic and international exhibitions such as the Vienna Carpet Exhibition, which are among the factors that increase this capital. This is while the establishment of the first large machine-made carpet factory in Kashan and the export of wool and cotton are mentioned as factors reducing capital. In conclusion, the field of power in reality functions as a kind of meta-field that has influenced all fields. The important effects of the power field on the cultural and symbolic capitals of the urban carpet subfield during the second Pahlavi period can be seen in the royal-commissioned weavings, power-inspired image weavings from Pahlavi court symbols, the establishment of government institutions in the handwoven carpet sector, and the founding of the Iran Carpet Museum. As a result, during the Pahlavi period, the carpet field had a significant relationship with the power field, and the expansion or restriction and reduction of the carpet field’s scope was directly related to the approaches of the actors in the power field, having an important impact on urban carpets in the second part of the Pahlavi era. In other words, the urban carpet subfield during the Pahlavi period was more powerful in its competition with other subfields of rural and tribal carpets.