Participation Obstacles in Achieving Good Urban Governance, with a Focus on the Civil Sector(Case Study: Yazd)

Social participation is a process based on collective wisdom and conscious and voluntary behavior that involves the participation of all stakeholders in all aspects of planning and decision-making, management, implementation, evaluation, and control, and the sharing of benefits and profits to achieve the goal. It specifies that this should be considered in order to attain good governance. This study seeks to identify the obstacles to participation in the realization of good urban governance, with a focus on the civil sector.This study was conducted using qualitative methods and semi-structured interviews with a purposeful sample of 10 civil society actors; the results were analyzed using thematic analysis.The collected data were analyzed under the headings of a primary theme, the lack of social capital, and a secondary theme, the frailty of civil society. Consequently, the fortification of the public sector and the increase in social capital can be felt to facilitate the attainment of good governance. In general, based on the findings of the study, civil participation in Yazd is minimal, and the civil society is weak.For good governance to be realized, a civil society predicated on civil participation must exist. In this regard, the government should reexamine centralized policies and devolve more authority to local communities in order to facilitate a greater level of citizen and local government participation in activities and affairs.