An Analytic Survey of the Necessities of Reconsidering Iran's Rural Development Planning Policies

The general trend of economic, political, cultural and social changes occurring in Iran in recent years, especially those starting from Pahlavi Era to date, in one hand, and diversity and variety of the country’s geographic situation on the other, has turned into an ad hoc human residence spatial systems, which can be termed “spatial duality”. The excessive deprivation experienced in rural areas as compared to the living standards of urban areas along with the increasing gap between the rural and urban areas, had resulted in a regional disequilibrium in the country. When considering and evaluating the state’s development planning programs before and after revolution with regard to the rural development planning, it appears to be unidirectional, concerning the attention paid only to the rural services to fit the welfare needs of the areas supposed to be residential in nature, with little or no attention paid to meet the rural areas’ productive- economic functions which are in hard need of reconsideration for the state and its rural development planning. It requires the inclusion of a simultaneous multifaceted planning with regard to the residential and economic dimensions in the state’s development policy. The writer has utilized an array of ideas, experiences and sources to study the necessities of reconsidering Iran’s rural development planning and in doing so, the issues such as the crucial goals of rural development planning, rural development planning policy, and the necessities of reconsidering Iran’s rural development planning have been addressed. The paper will end up with a conclusion and some comments.