Culture planning assumption: investigating the cultural aspects of spatial planning with agent-based approach institutionalists

Spatial planning traditions and systems, development processes in cities and regions, and planning and decision-making concepts have always been influenced by contexts and cultural background of the involved actors in the planning processes and systems. Despite the cultural turn and increased recognition of culture and emphasis of scholars on its importance, planning theories rarely mention culture as a critical factor in the analysis and comparison of principles, systems and planning processes. Hence, through a critical review of the latest approaches and using actor-centered institutionalism approach, this paper introduces a theoretical model based on culturized planning model to investigate important cultural dimensions of spatial planning. In other words, this paper aims to explore the role of culture in spatial planning and analyze this role by the actor-centered institutionalism approach. This research has delineated the relation between planning and societal culture by introducing the culturized planning model. The explanatory aspect of this model, however, needs a more comprehensive analysis of cognitive frames in spatial planning. This conceptual framework, which demonstrates a new theoretical approach, includes dimensions that affect planning such as cognitive framework of planners and planning institutions, institutional context, planning system, cultural codes and beliefs, and societal values. Such a consistent collection of criteria enhances the explanation of culture and its effects on spatial planning practices.