A Reflection on Cultural-Political Forms in Urban ManagementCase Study: Tehran Urban Management (1989-2017)

Cultural policy is an interdisciplinary field that is relevant to public policy on the one hand and has a social approach on the other hand, and can be studied at the municipal level. The issue raised in this paper is the formation of the concept, which has not been addressed in scientific sources. In other countries, municipalities are constantly working on cultural policies and plans. Tehran municipal management has also put this issue on its agenda. The lack of a concept of municipal cultural policy has led to some confusion among scholars in light of the plans offered by the municipality. This paper details not only the formation of this concept, but also its expression. Documents examined include reports such as research reports, statistical reports, press reports, and city rules and regulations. The creation of the original concept of urban cultural concepts can be evaluated in terms of eight different types: Idea promotion and stabilization, urban development, per capita income promotion, public space development, time policy, cultural industry, civic education, and urban indication. Analyzing the experiments carried out from 1989 to 2017 in four different construction phases, the reformist, the developmentalist and the fundamentalist, it was found that four more agendas must be added to the previous ones, including creation of structures and organizations for cultural management, networking and social vitality, leisure and support for cultural institutions.