Environmental dynamics and urban governance knowledge networking

Increasing population growth, especially in developing countries, has made the importance of city management a key issue. The complexities of social, economic and cultural issues, as well as the migration of people from the countryside to the city and the excessive expansion of cities are important issues for governments. With the passage of time and the increasing complexity of the urban system and the importance of citizens' participation as well as the management of each citizen's issues, the necessity of examining the patterns of urban governance and how to make policies in the city councils has drawn more and more attention to the researchers of government organizations, economists and sociologists. The discussion of social justice and providing welfare facilities for the residents of the cities in the shadow of the decisions of the government, responding to the needs of the citizens and creating satisfaction and the efficiency and effectiveness of the decisions in order to improve the process of urban development are among the issues that should be given the attention of policy makers and statesmen more than in the past. The knowledge networking of urban rulers in a dynamic environment is the foundation of the knowledge-based progress of cities. Since decision-making is one of the important elements of management in accordance with the mission and strategies of inner and outer city environments that are rapidly changing and growing, they influence the way of urban planning. Therefore, it challenges the necessity of preparation of complex urban management to keep pace with developments and attract them, so understanding and knowing how to network the knowledge of urban rulers and its effect on the performance and decision-making of managers is a vital matter; The purpose of this research is to present a model of knowledge networking and the influencing factors on the knowledge network of urban rulers..

The current research is qualitative and based on interpretive paradigm and theme analysis method. The research is basic in terms of its purpose and exploratory-inductive in terms of data collection and nature. The target community of the research is the municipal managers of Tehran districts. Among the 123 mayors of Tehran districts, 18 experts were selected. The main research tool is exploratory focus group with deep interview; therefore, based on available knowledge, MAXQDA 2020 software was used to analyze the interview text data. The aim of the research is to design the knowledge network model of urban rulers. For this reason, in this research,through a qualitative and interpretive approach, the managers and experts in Tehran municipality were interviewed using the method of theme analysis, and by posing appropriate questions, we seek to discover the pattern of action of city rulers. The main tool in this research is an in-depth interview. The effort in designing the qualitative interview letter was to propose questions whose answers from the respected interviewees would provide data for the research questions. In other words, in this process, we seek to discover the most important elements and causes of the formation of the common pattern of the knowledge network of these people in the design of the model of the knowledge network of urban rulers, and based on the available knowledge create a better model after interpreting the data obtained from the text of the interviews.

In this research, an attempt was made to examine the main and sub-themes correctly and accurately so that the knowledge network of urban rulers could be conceptualized; therefore, we considered some main themes as background conditions and some themes as consequences. The knowledge of urban governance is formed in a VUCA and dynamic environment. Our model in this research includes background factors, which are divided into three factors: individual background, social background and environmental background. Background conditions are related to conditions that can directly affect the type of decision making of people; also these background factors have mutual effects on each other and can have intensity and weakness as a result of these effects. Contextual factors can have direct and indirect effects on the formation of ruling knowledge and urban knowledge, and each of these two factors are effective in forming the knowledge network of urban rulers. In general, as a result of the creation of the knowledge network of urban rulers, different patterns are created according to all the considered conditions. Undesirable pattern, desirable pattern and common pattern.

In this research, two groups of influential main themes were discovered. The influencing themes on the formation of the knowledge network of urban rulers include personal background factors, environmental background factors, social background factors, knowledge of governance, urban knowledge. The influencing theme includes the model of the knowledge network of governance, and as a result of these effects,  3 different models, i.e. undesirable pattern, desirable pattern and common pattern of governance is created. The findings of the research show that the effects and dynamics of the environment can be effective in the process of formation of the governance knowledge network and these networks in turn can create different patterns of governance. Failure to pay attention to the creation of knowledge networks in government institutions and organizations can slow down the decision-making process and make crisis management difficult in today's world.