The Analysis of Political Management of Space in New Towns of Iran and Providing Strategic Plans

پژوهش ‎های جغرافیای سیاسی

Article 3, Volume 1, Issue 4, January 2017, Pages 115-137   

Document Type: مقالات علمی -پژوهشی

DOI: 10.22067/pg.v1i4.61501

Authors

Safar Ghaed Rahmati; Hasan Behnam Morshedi^*

Tarbiat Modares University

Abstract

Extended abstract
1- INTRODUCTION
The rapid growth of population in big cities of Iran and the need for leading this overflow of population and future economic activities from big cities to new towns have necessitated constructing them. Therefore, due to the economic, social and structural issues of Iran's cities, the solution for making new towns has been proposed. The plan of constructing new towns was suggested by the welfare committee of government's employees in the ministry of roads and Urban Development. There are some issues in relation to establishing new towns and how to plan and manage them. Not only new towns have not resolved the urban problems but also some problems have emerged in the process of urbanization in Iran and new towns have brought about management gaps. In this regard, the political management ability of a community is one of the most important factors in the planning, designing, implementing and managing a new town. The management ability of a country is greater; the possibility of creating administrative, economic, political and social institutions in a city is more possible. As a result, more people have the opportunity to live in a city with satisfaction. These factors provide more population concentration in an area and on the other hand, present more services to the dwellers. Therefore, the relationship and interaction between social organization and spatial organization is an important research issue in geography and urban planning. New towns can be considered as the most prominent examples of social, political and spatial complexities; because it plays important role in the structure of political, social and economic relations in societies.
Thus, this research is going to answer these questions:
• How is the political management of new towns evaluated in the current situation?
• What is the pattern of the structure of urban governance in new towns of metropolitan cities?
2- THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The political management of a town is the exact representation of local government and urban system that facilitate the spatial distribution in the towns and attempt to conceive the inside and outside of urban space and as a consequence the welfare and prosperity of people are provided in their life. The existing structure of management of new towns and their duties is the product of years of focusing on the system of government and bureaucracy. This structure of management does not possess enough ability to meet the increasing demands caused by the rapid growth of urbanization and outbreak of new changes in the social, structural and economic structure of new towns. Consequently, to solve this problem, in Article 12 of the Law of creating new towns, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development shall ensure to announce the settlement of at least ten thousand people in a new town to the Ministry of Interior. The Ministry of Interior is obliged to establish city council and municipality in that new town, even if the plan of the new town is not finished yet. Not only by establishing the Municipality, the problem is not resolved, but also the management of these towns follows a dual model that has negative impacts on the function of new towns. The management of new towns is based on the management model of political spaces (The Ministry of Interior and State Governments) and the other one is the model of New Towns Development Company.
3- METHODOLOGY
The present study, in terms of purpose is an applied research and in terms of analysis method is a descriptive and analytical one. In this study thirty elite people were chosen by random sampling. The twenty-eight research indicators were selected based on the literature of research and the experiences of studies and also according to the purpose of the researches on political management in new towns. The K-S test was used to prove the normality of the variables. After defining the items and their normality test, all the items were ranked and specified based on the Likert score.
4- RESULTS & DISCUSSION
The findings indicate that the importance of "Justice" indicator in the model of political management of new towns has been evaluated by 37.5 percent as Very Much, 31.2 percent as Much, and the other 31.2 percent evaluated it as Average. These evaluations demonstrate the high importance of Justice in the model of political management of new towns. Therefore, in terms of importance, the priority of indicators in the model of political management is respectively: contribution, enhancing the administrative capacity, empowering the local citizens, justice, and collective identity formation.
5- CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS
According to a legal definition of duties of these management models of new cities, there are some similar functions that cause conflict and disagreement in managing the new towns. When these management models reach to an agreement in their functions, the town will develop. But the conflicts between them prevent them from focused decision makings. This gaps in the decision-making centers will have a direct impact on the functions.
Thus, these Institutions along with other serving institutions have considered some divisions based on sector plans and job descriptions, and technical and administrative problems. Now the most important problem caused by this multiplexing division is imbalance in the provision of services and lack of coordination. These factors show the increasing necessity of management.
To overcome the challenges of the new towns some strategies are suggested as fellow:
• First step: to define a long-term development perspective
• Second step: to prepare an economic framework for sustainable development to reduce the risk of fragile economic structures in the new towns
• Third step: to prepare a comprehensive plan of public services to coordinate public services to local needs.
Strategic recommendations in the field of urban management are presented as these four strategies: establishing effective and developing governance structure in the field of urban management, creating coordination and interaction between institutions and organizations involved in urban management of the new cities, strengthening cooperation and coordination between inter sectorial and inter organizational, leading the objectives and organizational structure towards the developing.

Keywords

New Towns; Political management of space; Strategic Plans

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