Explaining the Performance Model of Rasht as the Creative City of Gastronomy for Urban Development Using Grounded Theory

Creative cities are considered a new model in urban planning to help the development of cities. In the meantime, one of the urban development opportunities raised by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network to use the potential in cities is gastronomy, which plays a role in the daily life of citizens as a cultural and creative activity. This research sought to analyze the performance of Rasht as the creative city of gastronomy with the aim of urban development and explaining a model for it. The research method was qualitative using grounded theory. The statistical sample size was obtained using the snowball sampling method and continued through interviews until data saturation and no new concept was obtained. Accordingly, 25 individuals participated in a semi-structured interview. 13 of them included city managers of Rasht, officials of the Creative City of Gastronomy project, urban area experts, tourism development specialists, university faculty members, restaurateurs and cooks, and 12 people included citizens of Rasht. From the collected information, the final model of the research was formed during the three steps of coding the Grounded theory (open, axial, and selective) and the conditions of the categories (causal, contextual, central phenomenon, intervention, inhibitory, strategies, consequence). Results showed that the category of "importance of planning and branding" is a causal condition, the category of "cultural and food values" is a contextual condition, the category of "actions in the field of creative city" is an intervention condition, and the category of "disorganization and indecisiveness of urban management in the direction of development" "Creative City of Gastronomy" is one of the conditions that hinder the Creative City of Gastronomy in Rasht and affect its performance. In general, the performance of the creative city of Rasht could be better. To improve the performance of this city, three strategies, "Education and participation of society and trades," "Realization of creative projects," and "Information and communication exchange management," were presented. By applying these strategies, the result of "Strengthening and all-round development of the creative gastronomy city" will be It happens that it consists of three basic categories: "increasing managers and creative and participatory citizens," "tourism development in the field of gastronomy" and "productivity of the local and urban economy." The results of the research help to understand the key components in the performance of the creative gastronomy city of Rasht by planners, officials, city managers, and citizens.