Revealing the Components of the Process of Preparation and Approval of Urban Development Plans Using Multi-Level Situation AnalysisCase Study: Mashhad Urban Development Plans

One of the main issues in the field of urban planning in Iran is the performance of urban development projects. Urban development plans have been prepared in Iran since the 1960s. However, over time, they have encountered some problems in practice. In order to identify the problems, the performance of urban development projects has been evaluated in different periods. According to the requirements of the time, various solutions have been presented in order to improve the process of preparation and approval of urban development plans in Iran. Most of the evaluations have been done in relation to the physical recommendations of the performance of the plans and most of the solutions have been presented in order to change the methods of preparing urban development plans. In the global literature today, the nature of the discourse of planning and decision-making in the public sphere is followed by scholars such as Foucault, Allmendinger, and Healey. Accordingly, the attitude towards urban development plans in this study has shifted from an empirical perspective to more flexible and deductive perspectives. In the field of urban development plans, this article seeks to reveal the components affecting the process of preparation and approval of plans in Iran based on the experiences of the city of Mashhad. In order to achieve this goal, the present study will use the capabilities of new methods of the grounded theory called situational analysis. The use of situational analysis could show us that the factors influencing the preparation and approval of urban development plans in Iran are very diverse, dynamic, and complex. Different factors affect urban development plans and they are influenced by different discourse worlds at different scales. Data collection tools in this study include field data and library data. Field data collection includes 17 interviews with specialists. There were also 546 interviews, reports, and articles published in the press that were used to collect library and documentary data. Data analysis in this study was carried out by using the proposed method of Adel Clarke using location maps and arena/social world maps on the national and local scales. The results of this study showed that in different social worlds, different discourse structures affect the preparation and approval of urban development plans in Iran. Areas affecting the preparation of urban development plans were divided into three categories: political, intellectual, and social capitals. As a result of the impact of these three types of capitals, different planning methods and decision-making methods have emerged. The analysis of the arena-social world map in this study showed that there are content differences in the fields of social capital, intellectual capital, and political-managerial capital at national and local scales. consequently, planning tools and decision-making methods are also expressed differently at national and local levels. At the local level, due to the role of municipalities in urban development plans and their vital relationship with the people, there is a tendency for short-term, collective, and action-oriented decisions, while at the national level due to centralist approaches and oil revenues, long-term, governmental, and idealistic measures are in focus.