In Iran, as elsewhere, many actors claim to address the grievances of ‘the poor’, ‘the oppressed’, ‘the weak’ or ‘the dependent’. Currently, these actors include international institutions like the World Health Organization and the UNDP; national and local political institutions such as the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labour and Social Welfare; religious and revolutionary charitable trusts such as the Foundation of Martyrs and Veteran Affairs; local cooperatives; international and local NGOs; local religious associations and mosques; Islamic interest-free loan banks; militia of basidj; neighbourhood councils; as well as individual actors. This long list signals that, far from being centralized, the Iranian social relief sector and welfare system is not pitted between the state and civil society, nor between religious and non-religious institutions, quite the contrary (Harris 2017). Firstly, it is a realm where multiple actors intersect, individuals, institutions (local, national, international), and public or private organisations. Secondly, it is a space at a crossroads of the different legitimation repertoires of the Iranian Republic – be they religious, revolutionary or civic. Thirdly, it is a realm of encounters and conflicts over resource distribution (material, financial, and moral) between these actors (Piran 2013, Adelkhah 2009). Focusing on a neighbourhood-level analysis, the paper moves beyond the notion of the state as a black box to analyse its concrete manifestations through the sociological analysis of the everyday practices of neighbourhood volunteers yet elected and acting as local civil servants: the neighbourhood councillors. By studying how they act as local policy intermediaries in the social relief sector, this paper will address the following questions: despite the 'fragmentation' of social public action, ongoing social conflicts, the overlaps between the associative, administrative, and political organisations intervening in the social relief sector (Harris, 2017), how do the everyday practices of the neighbourhood councillors make the state endure (Roitman & al., 2019), and exist as unified, centralised, 'off the ground/out of society' (Catusse & Grangaud, 2019)? To what extent do neighbourhood councillors contribute, even when criticising existing social policies and redefining the scope of their activities, to the reproduction of social and political inequalities and, more generally, the (re)production of an authoritarian state effects? This paper leans on the author's PhD, which consisted of an ethnographic and sociological study of five neighbourhoods in Tehran between 2007 and 2012 and the Iranian social relief sector analysis undertaken during two postdoctoral fellowships (2017-2021).