PARTNERSHIP, A NEW APPROACH FOR THE URBAN MANAGEMENT OF IRAN: CASE STUDY – MANAGEMENT OF MASHHAD RELIGIOUS METROPOLIS

In the last one hundred years, Iran has been facing too many diffi culties with respect to its urban management as a result of changes in the government system. The governor or magistrate and the king’s agent were in charge of the affairs in the city. The year 1907 is considered as an important transition point in Iran. In this year, some rules were introduced concerning management of the cities and establishment of the municipality. The rules of the municipality were amended four times until the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran in 1978, and the mayor was elected not by the people but by the government representative to manage the affairs of the city. The Islamic Revolution in 1978 brought with it understanding of cooperation, especially in urban management, but it was not until 1998 that the right circumstances arose for citizens to take part and share in managing the affairs of the city. The election for the Islamic Council of the city was held in 1998, which was a new approach in cooperation and the urban management of Iran. This article discusses the process of managing the affairs of cities during the imperial and Islamic periods, in the last one hundred years, and analyzes the new model of council management in the Islamic system, touching upon the management of the religious metropolis in Mashhad (which is the second largest religious metropolis in the world and is visited by over 12 million pilgrims annually) as a model. The author will also deal with the method of improvement in urban management and council management and present some new recommendations in managing the metropolis in the 21st century