Towards a conceptual framework for urban management: The Iranian experience

This paper is the outcome of a sustainable urban management conference held in Dubai in 2010. A number of high ranking city officials including mayors, vice mayors, city council members and urban planners attended the conference and shared their opinions about the formidable challenges facing Iran cities and their perceived solutions. Drawing from this unique data on what experts constitute the current urban management problems and prospects in Iran, four key categories emerged: trust building, feedback, accountability, and participation. This article addresses these key challenges and lessons against the broader backdrop of four fundamental questions on the goals and scales of effective urban management practices in Iran along with exploring the standards and indices for evaluating them. It also discusses the sequential order in which these key categories ought to be operationalized. This sequence seeks to break the gridlock of the current practice of sustainable urban management in Iran characterized by the vicious circle of mistrust between people and the state, little public participation, lack of accountability, and ineffective or biased feedback.