نشریه دانش شهرسازی
سال هفتم شماره 1 (پیاپی 22، بهار 1402)

Place is an intermediate layer or level as the urban-relational. This ontological conception of place which has a capacity for encountering complicated relationships and and contentions requires critical scrutiny for more elaboration. That aspect of critical urbanism is needed that embeds the redefined ontology in political and socioeconomic realities and explain place as a concrete abstraction.. Political economy is an approach to this achievement through a critique of the mode of place production and also related productive forces and relations.  In this way, lessons in Critical Theory could be as contributions to better understanding.  Based on this and the examination of the evolution of the political economy concept, some essential ideas can be proposed in the critique's framework of the political economy of urban places. An effort will be made to analyze the spatial manifestation of the main productive forces in eight sectors under the capitalist mode of production and to investigate the relationships between them, which have specific consequences on urban places.

The research paradigm focuses on an integrative post-positivist and interpretations schemata and analyses social realities, following normative values of the place and mediating political and socioeconomic relations.The current study adopts a normative-critical epistemology and applies a deductive strategy and a qualitative method to peruse a coherent critical formation of place concept through the review of library documents and the description, analysis, and extension of various theoretical ideas and approaches.

Critique of political economy within  an urban context includes eight rubrics: place as commodity and use value versus exchange value; consumption, spectacle, and commodity fetishism (a two-way conflict between use value and exchange value and the conquest of the latter over the former that occurred because of  the commodification of the city's real estate and collective consumption); private property versus the commons in urban places (a place that has a balanced content as an intermediary layer, and the micro level has a balanced role against the pressures from the macro level, can be a place for the establishment of shared ownership); capital accumulation, right to the city and inequality (The role-playing of the place as the urban-relational between the macro and micro levels leads to a conflict between the stronger and weaker subjects of these two levels. The balance or imbalance between these two levels of role-playing is directly related to the right to the city, the increase or decrease of inequality, and the stratification of the urban society.); state versus private sector; academy and market; and finally, dialectical nature of the place (Place as the urban-relational is in its essence a synthetic phenomenon and a product of the dialectical relationship between distant and close order).

The scrutinizing of place as the "urban-relational " is the main goal of this research, and in this direction, the main challenge is to examine the most important concepts arising from the previous efforts of the authors by passing through the sieve of political economy as a critical approach. For this purpose, an effort is made to calculate the intersection of various and multiple aspects in view of the most advanced thinkers and commentators on political economy and its urbanized version. The review of the literature in political economy in order to find out what this concept is and then the examination of its evolution from the time of its creation in the late 18th century until today revealed its content orientations and trends in different periods. Then, with the help of the formed theoretical framework, and by taking advantage of a comprehensive review of the opinions of some of the most prominent urban scientists, an attempt is made to establish a connection between the theoretical framework and urban issues and to provide a relatively comprehensive analysis of the issues affecting urban places from the perspective of political economy in the sections emerging from the theoretical framework.

It should be acknowledged that the "urban-relational" can only have an active mediation in order to improve the level of placeness in cities when it can have an effective function in the production method that governs it, which is associated with specific production forces and relationships. Place as the urban-relational rests on productive forces and relations by which a mode of production is explained and elaborated. The efficient function of place as the urban-relational within the influential mode of production is conditioned by some potentialities and impotentialities interfering in the scrutinization of place.

The complexities and types of urban problems have caused a gap between the theory and practice of planning, many goals and movements, and evolution in concepts and practice in planning. Planning of cities is very important because cities can be complex systems and planning programs evolve according to the ever-increasing changes in cities and identify new horizons in this field. The purpose of the current research is actant-network theories in urban planning and also the development of new horizons using new intellectual-philosophical theories in urban planning.

The current research is fundamental in terms of type, in terms of qualitative and theoretical methods, it is the actant-network follower theory. Now, first, the important concepts and principles of actant-network theory will be briefly reviewed, and then the implication research method will be used. The implication research method uses the guidelines of a philosophical school, basic discipline, theory, or model and uses them in the specialized field.

In the postmodern era, we need multiple theories of planning to respond to the range of issues facing planners and those interested in planning systems. However, actant-network theory may be a useful complement to that set of theories. Many of the existing theories in urban planning have a very general abstract and descriptive level and are simply not applicable for implementation. Since urban planning deals with both human and mental affairs and non-human and material affairs, the ever-increasing complexity of urban issues makes many theories that are one-dimensional and only focus on aspects of urban issues unable to answer urban issues. In today's era, because of the intertwining of social, economic, political, cultural, environmental, technological, etc. sectors, it can be said that we are facing a kind of integration of issues. When discussing a specific urban problem such as informal settlements, we are not only facing a physical or social problem, but we are facing all the problems and we cannot expect to solve the problem without considering all aspects. In the discussion of informal settlements, each issue related to the issue has its own ontology, which cannot be reduced to the ontology of other issues. As Latour also emphasizes in his theory, different spheres of existence cannot be separated from each other, but everything gains  meaning in connection and in translation to something else. In the following, relying on the concepts of  the actant-network theory of Bruno Latour, it is tried to calculate its implications as much as possible in urban planning.

The actant-network theory defends the agency of non-human actants along with humans by rejecting essentialism and the nature/society dualism, and it is reasonable that human actantsare not superior and complete in the hands of any of the non-human actants. The degree of prioritization of urban issues, fluid urban planning, fluid urban planning, non-separation of human and non-human actants in urban planning, and investigation of urban issues are among the theories of actant-network applications in urban planning. 

Urban issues arise as a result of the complex interaction that occurs between human and non-human actants, and in the meantime, the actant-network theory is against reducing the issues to a few general issues and believes that these issues should be addressed (as a black box). It should be considered and not just the black boxes themselves. In the interactions that occur between human and non-human actants, one should seek to identify the networks and connections between the actants, as well as identify the process of translation and negotiation that exists between the actantsin the union and expansion of their network. Due to the complexities that exist in the city, urban issues are constantly being produced and reproduced and are changing, therefore, urban planning should be fluid and not static in order to create successful plans by forming strong links in this field. Since the actant-network theory believes that one should start with the actantsand not with the structures, therefore, in identifying and solving urban problems, one should also start with the actants and how to link between them and not with the structures that caused the creation of urban problems. The actant-network theory is somehow neither an epistemological framework, nor a methodological framework, nor a specific scientific discipline, but at the same time it is none of these titles, at the same time, it includes all these titles and somehow goes beyond the frameworks and structures move, and this feature of actant-network theory allows researchers to focus on issues freely, not to be caught in reductionism, to do better in identifying the actants of a network, and not to look at urban issues from a specific perspective. The diagram below shows the analysis of urban problems from the perspective of the actant-network theory of Bruno Latour.

Urban design as an evolutionary, multidimensional, and context-oriented process is the ground of multifaceted interactions of tendencies that shape the relationship between humans and the built environment in the public sphere over time. Also, this field derives the legitimacy of its theories from various intellectual roots and professional practices. Therefore, it is affected by a wide range of constraints, multiplicity of stakeholders, and complexities of making decisions in regard to the process of design. Some find dissatisfaction with the multiplicity of urban design due to its ambiguity, and some see it as a subset of a larger group such as the political economy of space, urban studies, urban planning, landscape design, sustainability, and architecture. Urban design requires a kind of interdisciplinary collaboration that the stakeholders in the position of design professionals, managers, investors, and space users can reach a common understanding of their activities. This common understanding comes about through the integration of science and methods in an integrated process. On the other hand, creativity is an integral part of the plan production process in urban design. Interpersonal creativity in this design process can be realized by creating a platform for the presence of creative people and creating shared creativity in an interactive way. This platform requires a collaborative design process; But currently, the plan production stage in urban design is often done in a partial and separate way by designers and without meaningful collaboration of other stakeholders. Meanwhile, the design production stage is a multi-dimensional, multi-level, and multi-factor stage. Urban design has been defined in the theoretical literature as a collaborative and transdisciplinary process for shaping the physical environment. In practice, however, the stage of the creation of idea and idea generation is led separately and in part only by the designer.  Therefore, no significant interaction with the other stakeholders is done. For example, in the Shahid Nawab Safavid Highway project in Tehran, the urban authority's power in preparing and implementing the plan by relying on municipal support, implementing the plan based on the pre-determined and totally inflexible plan, limited public participation, limited choice, a linear process, and lack of the intervention of the stakeholders shows the insufficient process. Thus, the design product is created with minimal interaction and with the " Elitism " and "design black box" approach. This is while the stage of creating an idea is itself a multi-dimensional, multi-level, and multi-factor stage. The purpose of this research is to provide a conceptual framework for creating a collaborative design process at the idea generation stage in the urban design process. For this purpose, in this research, an attempt is made to answer the question of what components are there in the realization of collaborative urban design in the plan production stage.   Considering the creative nature of design, how can the design production stage in the urban design process be formed with a scientific approach based on the interaction and collaboration between stakeholders? Also, in the case study, according to the nature of collaborative urban design, the question is answered, how the proposed process can be operationalized in a research case study? The purpose of this research is to provide a conceptual framework for the realization of the collaborative design process in the design production stage in urban design.

Quantitative and qualitative analysis methods have been used in this research. First, using the qualitative analysis method and the content analysis method in the creative/rational process of urban design, indicators, and components were extracted to compile the framework. These components include: diversity of stakeholders; limiting the number of stakeholders; power networking; validating the conversation; making collaboration meaningful; mutual learning; divergence of the discovery process; convergence of the problem-solving process; interactive learning; toolbox application; test and risk.

The results suggest the collaborative design process as a series of cycles of conceptualization, ideation, solution presentation, and evaluation as a result of the forces of power, which are networked in a spatial relationship with the collaboration of stakeholders. From the overlap of the design thinking process as a creative arm and collaborative rationality as a rational arm, the collaborative design process is formed in 8 steps. Each step of this process has interactive feedback that is revised by asking questions in case of a lack of informed consensus building.

In the proposed process Power is formed from the collaboration of interaction and mutual learning (learning through interaction), which can be considered the center of the sphere, which forms the cycle of interaction of stakeholders in one spatial dimension and the production cycle of design in another dimension.  Wherever the power of interaction and learning during the process is stronger on the design production cycle, the product of the design is driven to that superior power.

The proposed collaborative design process is proposed in 8 steps with criteria and sub-criteria. It needs to be implemented in a networked and integrated system in a set of data and hybrid methods and the details can be studied in another study.

Urban planning presents a wide range of difficulties, and conventional designs lack the effectiveness required to handle these difficulties. As a result, it is essential to provide solutions that are founded on cooperation and communication between various organizations, as well as the creation of networks that extend beyond hierarchical levels. Therefore, decentralization and the transferring  authority and power are raised as fundamental problems. To rethink society in this way, Manuel Castells proposes a network society as a new paradigm. This concept, along with its governing principles and guiding policies, must be taken into account. The network society proposes as a facilitating component in the interim, urban governance.

This research is based on purpose, fundamental, and qualitative, and adopts an explanatory-exploratory approach to systematically analyze resources and texts in network society and its place in urban planning. The research method used for the intended goal is qualitative content analysis; as defined by a definition of the studied literature. We extracted these concepts, and operational definitions based on theoretical discussions.In the second step, resource retrieval was performed based on keywords, title, and abstract, and in the third step, analysis and conceptual framework were developed.

From the viewpoint of the network society, the system of urban planning is an open, decentralized, and dialogue-oriented system in which activities are carried out freely and based on Virtualization. This means that a network society as the dominant form of social organization, is flexible and convergent, which replaces the hierarchical, vertical, and divergent structure.

Discusion: 

The process of urban planning and management is no longer a linear and one-sided process, according to recent developments in urban planning approaches. Instead, top-down planning has given way to bottom-up planning, governance has replaced government, and political communication has improved. Urban policies are fundamentally significant in this regard. Therefore, it is essential to integrate policies and pass sectoral policies that have impacted urban planning and management over the past few decades. Meanwhile, integration can be observed in various ways that strengthen policy coherence, avoid ineffective repetition, increase social learning, overcome weak sequences, and overcome intra-institutional stagnation and innovation. Urban governance is viewed as a method of structuring politics that, at higher levels of governance, calls for horizontal integration as opposed to a sectoral strategy. On the other hand, participatory network processes are highly valued in urban governance. In doing so, it substitutes the hierarchical administrative system for the network structure and integrates private and voluntary agents into this system. The local government's recognition of various abilities and skills has also encouraged the transfer of power from higher to lower levels.Castells' network society theory is one concept and theorythat must be paid attention to in order to implement a multi-sectoral and inter-sectoral strategy in urban planning and management. A decentralized society, a society based on knowledge, information, and communication technology, and a society where activities are carried out freely are thus the three basic tenets of the network society theory. However, for the network society to be realized in the interim, several important policies are required, such as a) creating new political spaces, so the governments were envisioned to be linked (local to regional, national, and international). The search for multi-level governance, or international policy discourses, is what defines politics in the network society; b) setting politics and policy-making in fundamental uncertainty that this new social awareness now presents a set of uncertainties about plans. Policymakers must therefore reevaluate their approach to addressing social uncertainties. The idea of a network society aids us in understanding the necessity and importance of dealing with issues like "trust," "interdependence," and "institutional capacity." c) increasing the importance of "difference" to our understanding of politics; d) taking actions to be aware of interdependence; and e) making policies and considering the dynamics of trust and identity. Achieving  a decentralized society is neither a prerequisite nor sufficient for achieving a networked society and effective urban governance. Instead, attention to agency, empowerment, and capacity building are also crucial factors. It implies that capacity is defined as the ability of a person, group, network, or society to complete a task or achieve a goal and that increasing capacity is defined as increasing power. Open culture and learning are  the key indicators in developing community capacity, knowledge, and skills; leadership; mutual trust and interaction; and social networks. The realization of a network society is defined as a participatory, interactive, discourse-oriented, and knowledge-oriented process. The shift from a hierarchical structure to a network structure is crucial considering recent developments in urban planning approaches and the appearance of new models in urban planning. The reason is that while man is involved in the process of urban planning and management as the subject of development in the network structure;  he is viewed as a tool and one of the development dimensions in the hierarchical structure. But in the interim, social capital—another significant factor—is also mentioned to prevent bargaining for personal interests. Social capital is characterized by behaviors that bind members of social networks and communities together and enable cooperative action. It also includes trust and mutual understanding between individuals.

Urban planning must take a pluralistic stance to create a city where people and their needs are prioritized over development as the main concern. The approach that is suggested as being the most adaptable and compatible in this case is the network society theory and consideration of its principles and policies.

Crisis and natural disasters are one of the basic fields in decision-making and public policy, which has significant connections with the planning and management system in cities. The importance of this area lies in the need to establish the stability and resilience of cities before and after the occurrence of natural disasters. Iran has always been vulnerable to crises, especially natural disasters. Phenomena such as floods and their types in cities have multiple and multifaceted unpredictable characteristics, and the optimal management patterns require specific and comprehensive analytical models in this field.Research in disasters shows that although these disasters affect all countries around the world; However, the set of natural and social risk factors in different countries depends strongly on the set of differences in the social and political systems of these nations in different. This citation shows a very prominent and very effective factor in regulating the structure and process of disaster and natural disaster management in all countries of the world called "institutions". According to this problem, the knowledge of crisis management based on the set of successful and unsuccessful practical experiences is constantly looking for the improvement of the set of theoretical and practical models effective in the efficient management of natural disasters in order to establish a faster and more favorable normal life cycle in times of crisis, especially after the occurrence of a crisis.Therefore, with the help of this critical approach and the use of the current accumulated achievements of knowledge, such as the links between planning theory and institutionalism, it is possible to expand the capacities of institutionalism in the knowledge of urban planning and aspects of crisis management and urban safety.Nowadays the institutional aspects of crisis management have gradually opened their place in the scientific and professional structure of natural disaster management; however, it lacks form comprehensive necessary guiding structures of the capacities of institutionalism in disaster and natural disaster management.Specifically, from the perspective of Iran, considering the challenges of management and policy-making in crisis and disaster management, such as the gaps in the existing crisis management laws and its noticeable weaknesses failure to consider all Hazards in disaster management and planning. Paying a lot of attention to disasters such as earthquakes and ignoring other disasters such as floods, not fully adopting an institutional approach to disaster management, lack of innovative and creative institutional structuring. It emphasizes the necessity of gradually approaching the application of new institutionalism and the connection between the dimensions of new institutionalism and the management of disasters and natural hazards, including the management of urban floods in the geography of Iran.

The approach of research is Qualitative and is based on the technique of secondary analysis of theoretically available texts in  planning, planning theory, and crisis management from the perspective of institutionalism and documentary research methods.

By integrating the capacities of neo-institutionalism in the knowledge of urbanism; presented an institutionalist conceptual model in crisis management specifically; in which the three building blocks of "institutional conceptual network", "institutional damages and pitfalls" and "institutional analytical and evaluation models" can be displayed together, the research has filled the gaps on current knowledge in this field, especially among domestic texts.

The rich theoretical capacity of disaster and natural disaster management shows the possibility of synergizing this platform with the conceptual and operational models of institutionalism and accordingly previous gaps can be solved with new readings with the help of versatile mediators such as "planning theory" and thus, the common levels of these two scientific streams could be closer to each other

First, the introduced model shows the wide capacities of institutionalism in natural disaster management, including complex disasters such as urban floods, and second, it shows the deep theoretical and practical capabilities of institutionalism in  natural disaster management, and third, the model shows the possibility of synergizing the capacities and capabilities of institutionalism in natural disaster management. Finally, it can be said the current proposed model is one models in common between institutionalism and the natural disaster management field, besides  the possibility of raising theoretical studies in crisis management; It can be oriented for applied studies in the field of disaster management like flood management in various technical, managerial and decision-making sub-fields.

Plans and programs for the conservation of historical fabrics in Iran have always faced challenges in order to achieve their goals from the stage of preparation to implementation; challenges that often prevented the implementation of plans or failed to implement them. Identifying and understanding these barriers is a fundamental step in how to overcome them.

This research has been conducted to identifythe main challenges and barriers of plans and programs for protecting  the historical tissues of Iran. accordingly seeks to find the priorities of future research by meta-analyzing the studies conducted in this field.

In the current study, the method of "meta-analysis based on contextual theory" has been used. Sampling and screening of articles have been done using several criteria during several stages. For this purpose, the Persian and English articles in the historical fabrics "written from 2014 to the present day" whose study scope is in "Iran", were searched in three databases: Google Scholar, SID, and Noormags. At the beginning of the process, articles were searched with the keywords "historical context" and "historical conservation". In the first step, the "title" and "abstract" of 156 articles based on criteria such as "publishing in scientific-research journals", "availability of the full text of the articles", "repetitiveness", "a direct reference to the barriers in the realization conservation plans and projects", "evaluation of restoration and conservation plans and projects based on case studies" and "referring to different approaches of conservation and development in historical contexts" were examined. 83 articles were selected. In the second step, after examining the "full text of the articles" and especially the "introduction" and "research results", the number of 39 articles were elected for review and coding. In the analysis of the samples, through open coding, 110 codes including direct and indirect references of the studies to the barriers and reasons for the failure of conservation programs have been extracted. In the next step, using axial coding, the codes were summarized and organized into 9 main categories. In the last step, using selective coding, the description of the categories and the link and relationship between the extracted concepts have been discussed.

Findings in the form of 9 categories: "Institutional and managerial challenge of heritage", "Content and semantic challenge of plans and programs", "Procedural and methodological challenge", "Cultural and social challenge", "Economic challenges", "the challenge of Legal, legitimate, rules and regulations of conservation and development”, "the challenge of power and policy", "the challenge of time" and the "knowledge and expertise challenge" were extracted and classified. It can be mentioned that categories and their relevant codes have a deep relationship and sometimes affect each other. Therefore not removing one obstacle or challenge will result in creating or amplifying other barriers.

Results showed that "institutional and management barriers and challenges of heritage" is one of the categories that has been emphasized with the highest level of abundance. In this category, the subcategories of "functional weakness and differences of management institutions"; in the category of "content and semantic challenge", the subcategories of "non-compliance of development plans with the needs, necessities, cultural structure and values of the context" and "the need for an integrated and comprehensive approach in regeneration, conservation and development" have been repeated more. Also, in the "procedural and methodological" category, the subcategory "Non-compliance of development and conservation plans"; in the field of "Cultural and social challenges", the subcategory "Lack of citizen participation", "Low level of public awareness towards heritage values", and "Lack of Educating and informing the society about historical values and how to deal with them"; and in the category of "economic challenges", the subcategory of "lack of supporting financial resources" and then "lack of incentive policies" were the most frequent. In relation to the "challenge of time", more emphasis has been placed on the "lack of attention to the historical development of the fabric"; and in relation to the "challenge of knowledge and expertise" to the "lack of local experts". However, from the author's point of view, there are also basic barriers and challenges that have either not been the focus of studies or have been mentioned in a few cases. In this regard "Challenge of theoretical foundations and indigenous literature in the field of urban restoration and conservation" "Semantic challenge of restoration and conservation words", "Gap between theory and practice" and "Innovation and technology" are the main gaps of previous studies which can be the priority of the future research