An analysis of the application of the concept of urban self-organization in neighborhoods development (Case Study: Sabzevar city)

Although citizen participation in the neighborhood-centered approach is a key issue, there is ample evidence that the implementation of participatory approaches has led to disappointing results. According to researchers, the concept of urban self-organization can provide a way out of this dilemma for planners. Despite the importance of this issue, so far, no research has been done on how to use this concept in the process of planning and development of neighborhoods and cities in Iran. The present study tries to examine and analyze how to apply the concept of urban self-organization in the development of neighborhoods in Iran. A case study of this research is Sabzevar city and the research method is multi-ground theory. The analysis of the collected data led to the extraction of 547 primary codes, 77 concepts, and 31 categories. Finally, the abstracted categories and the relationships between them were drawn and presented in a model. According to the findings of this study, the pattern of self-organized participation of citizens in neighborhood development is a transparent, borderless, sustainable, and technology-based network that connects all actors involved in neighborhood development. This pattern brings about the integrated development of neighborhoods and through very soft and gradual changes, creates huge changes in the cities.