Urban Management
Arastoo Yari hesar; Ali Dashti
Abstract
Highlights:
- A significant portion of the Fifth Council's tenure was devoted to internal municipal matters, resulting in a limited number of approvals directly addressing urban issues, citizen concerns, or current challenges facing Tehran. In essence, the priorities of this council did not align closely ...
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Highlights:
- A significant portion of the Fifth Council's tenure was devoted to internal municipal matters, resulting in a limited number of approvals directly addressing urban issues, citizen concerns, or current challenges facing Tehran. In essence, the priorities of this council did not align closely with the immediate needs of the city or its residents.
- Where urban issues were addressed in the council's resolutions, these primarily revisited unresolved matters from previous terms, with little to no introduction of new concerns or innovative solutions.
- The specialized commissions within the Tehran City Council appeared to lack vision and expertise, evident in the scarcity of innovative topics, the neglect of global issues pertinent to Tehran, and the absence of attention to the city's major challenges.
Introduction:
Islamic councils and municipalities serve as the foundational pillars of urban governance in Iran. The Islamic Councils of Cities, as policy-making bodies, play a crucial role in shaping urban management processes and performance. The decisions and policies endorsed by these councils significantly influence urban management outcomes. Therefore, it is imperative to evaluate these councils' performance by scrutinizing their resolutions to identify strengths and areas needing improvement. The most effective tool for this evaluation is an analysis of their legislative outputs.
During its five terms, the Islamic Council of Tehran has reviewed numerous bills and plans, resulting in a substantial number of resolutions. In its fifth term, the Council passed 878 resolutions across 315 meetings. This research aims to:
1. Conduct a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the resolutions passed by the Tehran Islamic Council in its fifth term.
2. Analyze and compare these resolutions with the Law on Organizations, Duties, and Powers of Councils.
3. Assess the alignment of these resolutions with the key priorities and issues facing Tehran, as well as the concerns of its citizens.
Theoretical Framework:
In a local management system that emphasizes genuine citizen participation, the primary goal is planning by the people, not merely for the people. Urban Islamic councils, as representatives of the populace, embody this participatory approach through their legislative activities. Over the past two decades, there has been a paradigm shift in urban planning and management from prescriptive to participatory approaches. This shift includes moving from a focus on results to an emphasis on processes, from reliance on existing resources to capacity building, and from government-centric solutions to problem-solving methods that leverage civil society initiatives and citizen participation. In this context, the resolutions passed by Islamic councils hold particular significance.
Methodology:
This research is classified as basic research with a developmental focus, analyzing the resolutions of the Tehran Islamic Council from an evaluative perspective. Data and information were collected through a document-library method, utilizing sources such as the Tehran Islamic Council's approvals department and the comprehensive system of council resolutions. Given that many entries in the approval system contain flaws and omissions, a compliance method was employed to correct these issues by cross-referencing each resolution individually and extracting the missing information. Moreover, due to the nature of the research—which involves the critique and evaluation of the content of the council's resolutions in its fifth term—a content analysis approach was used.
Results and Discussion:
The findings reveal that 68.1% of the fifth term council's resolutions were bills, while only 31% were plans. This suggests that more than two-thirds of the council's legislative efforts were directed towards municipal bills, leaving limited time for council members to develop and propose reformative or developmental plans. Furthermore, 93.6% of the resolutions were categorized as standard, 4.6% as urgent, and only 1.7% as highly urgent.
Conclusion:
The results of this research indicate that the fifth term of the Tehran City Council may be considered one of the weakest in terms of its contributions to urban governance. The content and thematic analysis of the resolutions suggest that:
1. A significant portion of the council's time was consumed by internal municipal matters, with few resolutions addressing urban issues, citizen concerns, or current challenges facing Tehran.
2. Many of the council's resolutions involved minor amendments to existing legislation, rather than introducing new initiatives.
3. The number of resolutions aimed at facilitating urban development and growth was notably limited.
4. The fifth term of the Tehran council was characterized by a focus on theoretical and software-related issues, with minimal emphasis on practical, hardware-related activities.
5. Key provisions of the Law on Organizations, Duties, and Powers of Councils were frequently disregarded or invalidated.
6. The council failed to address urban problem-solving effectively, with no significant new urban issues or innovative solutions emerging during this term.
Urban Planning
Arastoo Yari hesar; samira saeidi zarangi; zhila Farzane sadat zaranji; Hadi eskandarieynadin
Abstract
Individuals’ characteristics and those of age, sex, and social groups should help provide a safe, healthy, sustainable, and attractive environment that can properly respond to the different needs of all groups in the community. The population of the disabled, including people with physical and ...
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Individuals’ characteristics and those of age, sex, and social groups should help provide a safe, healthy, sustainable, and attractive environment that can properly respond to the different needs of all groups in the community. The population of the disabled, including people with physical and mobility disabilities, is among those who are deprived of ordinary lives, and the social planning system has led them to physical and social seclusion. All around the world, people with physical and mobility disabilities constitute a significant part of the population who, like other people, should be able to move around the city to satisfy their needs, strive, and not be deprived of their right to live a social life. It is a necessity for the development of the society to adapt urban spaces in order to provide all individuals and segments of the society with equal opportunities to move around the city and access all urban spaces. According to Article 5 of the Charter of Civil Rights of the Iranian Government, all the disabled and the elderly hold the right to benefit from medical and rehabilitation facilities for recovery or empowerment to be able to live independently and participate in different aspects of life. The research population included 4430 disabled people (physically disabled, blind, or partially sighted) in the city of Ardabil, Iran. Sample size was estimated to be 354 using Cochran’s formula, and a questionnaire was distributed among as many disabled participants and filled out. Interview methods were used for the blind and visually impaired who were not able to fill out the questionnaire. The sampling method employed in the study was simple random sampling, and data analysis was performed in SPSS using one-sample t-test and analysis of variance. As members of the society, the disabled have rights and entitlements that must be taken into account. One such issue concerns the design and adaptation of urban spaces for this group. If a disabled citizen is unable to access the places he needs to visit due to inappropriate urban spaces, he will be faced with many problems and barriers. The results of this study demonstrated that the physical zone of Ardabil, sidewalks, and construction equipment could not be used by the disabled. Urban administrators and officials have tried to adapt urban spaces by observing relevant principles in the central part of the city. On average, the status of the indicators was better in the group with physical and mobility impairment than in the blind. For example, the physical and socio-economic indicators exhibited higher averages in the group with physical and mobility impairment than in the blind. Although there were employment restrictions in both groups, they were more common among the blind and visually impaired. Furthermore, higher transportation costs were imposed on the blind and visually impaired than on those with physical and mobility disabilities. Despite the measures taken to adapt the environment for the active presence of the physically disabled and the blind, it is still impossible in the current socio-economic and physical conditions to adequately meet the needs of the disabled. Moreover, the urban management authorities in Ardabil have not formulated a clear plan for adaptation of urban spaces, and have therefore failed to exhibit acceptable performance in the field.
Urban Planning
Arastoo Yari hesar; mohammadhasan yazdani; Asghar pashazadeh
Abstract
Introduction Robbery is a behavioral and social deviation that has been regarded as a crime and negative, abnormal behavior almost regardless of when and where it has been committed. It is one of the oldest human crimes, observed in various forms in different societies. It is a phenomenon of great importance ...
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Introduction Robbery is a behavioral and social deviation that has been regarded as a crime and negative, abnormal behavior almost regardless of when and where it has been committed. It is one of the oldest human crimes, observed in various forms in different societies. It is a phenomenon of great importance that disturbs the individual’s and society’s security in both financial and physical terms. Since robbery can take place in particular time and location ranges, the main aim of the current research was to identify factors effective on the time and location of committing the crime in the city of Ardabil, Iran, and the researcher sought to provide an answer to the basic question of when and where robbery is committed in Ardabil. Methodology This was an applied descriptive-analytical study in terms of aim and data collection methodology. The research population included all the robbers serving their sentences at Ardabil jail in Spring and Summer 2017, all 233 of whom filled out questionnaires based on the complete enumeration method. Data collection was carried out through documentary analysis and field elicitation (using a questionnaire). SPSS was used for description and analysis of the data and examination of the hypotheses in accordance with the scales of measurement of the research variables. Thus, the chi-square test was used for investigation of the frequency distributions of the temporal and spatial variables, and Kramers’ test for the relationship between robber’s place of residence and crime scene. The ArcGIS software was also used for analysis of the dispersion of robber’s place of residence and crime scene. Results Place of residence and crime scene were found to be dispersed for most robbers serving their sentences at Ardabil jail. However, the highest frequency of place of residence was observed for the northwestern part, including the suburban area (northwest) and the semi-organic area (central part). As for crime scene, the highest frequency concerned the central part and the newly-constructed area (newly-constructed neighborhoods located in the central part). Given the great similarity between robber’s place of residence and crime scene based on Kramers’ test results, it could be stated that there was a significant relationship between the two variables. Moreover, the chi-square test results demonstrated that most of the robberies had been committed in summer (September), during the night, on the weekend, and by the drug addict with criminal records and financial problems. Conclusion Statistical tests and dispersion maps were used in this research for investigation of the times and locations of committing robbery. It could be concluded based on the findings that the crime was committed at particular times; that is, temporal conditions were effective on the occurrence of robbery. Most of the robberies had taken place in newly-constructed, wealthy areas. In fact, the commitment of robbery followed a particular dispersion pattern in spatial terms, and there was similarity and accordance between robber’s place of residence and crime scene, as evidenced by the observations, hence the significant relationship between the two variables.
