A Functional Analysis of Urban Activists in Organizing Informal Settlements with a Multi-Issue-Multi-Actor Model (Case: Islamabad Neighborhood of Zanjan City)

Informal settlement is a multi-dimensional and systematic phenomenon that is induced by the various mechanisms and mutual relations among hidden and visible social, economic, political and administrative actors. This study applied a descriptive-analytical method to analyze the role of influential actors in organizing the informal settlement of Islamabad neighborhood with the Mector model in Zanjan city. Data was collected through library and field methods. The statistical population includes the urban planning experts and elites in Zanjan city, of whom 25 participants were selected using the snowball sampling method. For data analysis, factor analysis approach, structural equation model, and multi-subject-multi-player model were applied using SPSS, Lisrel, and Mactor software. The results showed that 21 main factors in different dimensions have a direct impact on the organization of the informal settlement of Islam neighborhood in Zanjan city. According to the model of structural equations, the actors have the most causal relationships with the environmental index with a coefficient of 7.05 and the least relationships with the physical index with a coefficient of 3.12. According to the multi-issue-multi-player model, the main factor in the organization of informal settlements in the neighborhood of Islamabad is the triangle of relations between the municipality, the residents of the neighborhood, and local institutions, and the main focus is on the municipality. Since the micro-activists of Islamabad have low economic power to participate in construction and renovation of the area, the transcendental participatory models like the spontaneous model is not recommended for this area. Thus, it seems that models like the interactive model are better options to be used in the above range. Considering the position of the municipality in the urban activism of these neighborhoods, the provision of exclusive interests hidden in the renovation of single buildings, which fuels commercialization of land and urban housing should be prior. Moreover, the government and public sector institutions such as the municipality and neglecting their obligations towards these neighborhoods, in addition to inducing and aggravating wear and tear, will cause more in formalization of the space.