Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Assistant Professor in Urban Management, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba'i University
2
MA in Urban Management, School of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Tehran
Abstract
The key issues in this paper is identifying key stakeholders, investigating stakeholders' interests, identifying patterns and contexts of interactions between them and, of course, assessing key stakeholders' power resources in policy-making process for Tehran strategic-structural comprehensive plan. So, we focus on key stakeholders' power analysis in policy-making process of Tehran comprehensive plan. We assume that reasons which cause Tehran to have had several problems, whether before or after preparation of comprehensive plan, refer to inequality and imbalance of stakeholders' powers in policy-making for Tehran comprehensive plan. Therefore, we try to find the reasons behind such stakeholder's power imbalance. The approach of this study is considering urban governance which provides context for collective decision-making, some manners of stakeholders' participation in urban decision-making process in addition to achieving corporate interests. The key concepts we study about in this paper include: urban policy-making process, power, urban power and urban governance. Urban governance as the approach of this study can help us understand the distribution of power among stakeholders, and if we observe the imbalance of power distribution, urban governance can provide some functional and structural solutions - i.e. a set of policies, institutions and processes - to gear toward improving the capabilities of all stakeholders in urban planning and policy-making process and to tackle inequalities. The problem is distortion of urban power balance among key stakeholders who are engaged in process of policy-making in Tehran comprehensive Plan, which threats different dimensions of quality of life in Tehran. Methodology of this study include: using descriptive-analytical methods, studying the library sources and documents in theoretical framework and analytical model of this research as well as conducting 22 semi-structured interviews with experts in Tehran urban management regarding the case study and analyzing derived data based on open coding method. The results of this study show that policy-making process of Tehran comprehensive Plan has been faced with two types of monopolism, (1) institutional and functional monopoly in urban power, where this type of monopoly refers to urban power institutions and consists of some kinds, such as technocratic or science based monopoly; (2) structural monopoly caused by imposing and eroding structures of urban management system, and this type of monopoly consists of political, economic, social-cultural and legal dimensions, which is imposed on urban management institutions. Therefore, urban management institutions have to operate within centralized and monopolistic urban management structure. These two types of monopolies reinforce each other and their consequences distort the balance of the environment and process of Tehran urban management. Furthermore, this situation destroys public interests and creates several challenges for future. Therefore, we argue that two types of monopolies cause several challenges in different levels of Tehran urban management, first institutional and functional monopoly and second, structural monopoly. As a result, we believe that reinforcing structures and processes of urban governance in addition to developing the stakeholders' capacity-building are key steps to undermine these two monopolies.
Keywords