Urban Economics and Planning

Urban Economics and Planning

Meta-Synthesis of City Diplomacy Researches in Iran

Document Type : Review

Authors
Ali Oskouee Aras 1
Fereidon Babaei Aghdam 2
Iraj Teimouri 2
Ali Hosseini 3
1 Ph.D Candidate in Geography and Urban Planning, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
2 Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, Tabriz University, Tabriz, Iran
3 Associate Professor of Geography and Urban Planning, Department of Human Geography and Planning, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
10.22034/uep.2025.488723.1556
Abstract
Introduction 
Globalization has led to the fact that today, in addition to playing a role locally, cities also expand political, economic, cultural, and international relations. With the continuation of globalization, the management of international relations of cities has emerged in the network of global cities in the form of city diplomacy. Considering its privileged position in the Middle East and Asia, Iran has a lot of capacity to activate diplomacy in its cities. From this point of view, the current research aims to identify and categorize authentic scientific research articles (ranked) by the Ministry of Science, master’s theses, doctoral theses, and authentic authored and translated books in the field of city diplomacy in Iran
Materials and Methods
This research investigated the studies conducted in the last ten years using a meta-synthesis (systematic) method. By understanding the approaches and nature of each one, he investigated the structure of scientific works, including methodology, indicators, method of data collection and analysis, and the results obtained to find the positive aspects and gaps. Analyze research. First, by searching for the keyword “city diplomacy” in reliable scientific databases (Magiran, Civilica, Jihad University Scientific Information, Google Scholar, and Samaneh Ganj Irandak), scientific works that had the word “city diplomacy” in their main titles were collected. Then, the initial review of articles and theses and limiting them to the valid scientific-research articles of the Ministry of Science, as well as the valid theses and theses of state universities, and their coding was undertaken. The inclusion criteria of the studies included conducting research and publishing the research in the Farsi language and in the form of full text. Among all the studies, 30 studies were selected due to meeting the inclusion criteria. A total of 19 scientific research articles, five master’s thesis titles, one doctoral thesis title, three authored book titles, and finally, three translated book titles were published in the period of April 2013 to March 2014 related to city diplomacy
Findings
The findings of the research show that the weakness of studies in the field of city diplomacy in Iran in the early 90s is quite evident, which has gradually increased the quality of articles, especially in recent years. The cities of Tehran, Mashhad, and Shiraz, respectively, have the largest number of research works in the field of city diplomacy. In relation to the specialized areas of works published in the field of city diplomacy in Iran, it can be said that the most published works are related to experts in the fields of political science, urban planning, geography, and urban planning. The most important dimensions of city diplomacy investigated by the researchers in Iran include seven dimensions of urban economy: urban culture, urban development, urban security, urban representation, urban networks, and finally, urban research. Also, the other findings of the research indicate that in relation to the nature of the research under review, the frequency of applied research is more compared to basic research, while the research review, especially in the last 5 years, indicates a growing trend of fundamental research in the field of city diplomacy in Iran. Of course, it should be pointed out that from the sum of the analyses carried out in a documentary and meta-synthesis way, it appears that despite the importance of city diplomacy in Iran as one of the most basic tools of decentralization in the management of the international sphere, and on the other hand, as one of the main factors of national and transnational development, the weakness of studies in this field is very tangible, in such a way that the largest number of researches conducted in this field is in the period of 1402-1396. This is even though very few scientific works in this field were able to be reviewed before that. The lack of a publication that is specific to studies in the field of city diplomacy in Iran is very evident. The interdisciplinary capability of the concept of “city diplomacy” has made it possible to use experts in various fields of humanities in studies related to city diplomacy. From this point of view, it is necessary for thinkers related to the field of city diplomacy in Iran to work hard in order to establish a special publication with concepts related to city diplomacy. The results show that in terms of geographical distribution, Tehran province (Tehran metropolis) is in first place, followed by Khorasan Razavi (Mashhad metropolis) and Fars (Shiraz metropolis), respectively, ranked second and third. It seems that one of the main reasons for researchers’ interest in conducting research in the field of city diplomacy in the mentioned metropolises is the significant number of sister cities and also the image of their desired destination, which, as a result, leads to the strengthening of relations in the fields that are different from other cities in the world. 
Conclusion
The results of this research show that there are many advantages for Iranian cities, especially big cities, to enter the field of city diplomacy actively and within the reasonable demands of the national government, but one of the main reasons for the inefficiency of the city diplomacy system in Iran, especially in big cities, is a lack of independence in decisions by the local government (big cities); in such a way that all the decisions in this field are completely dependent on the international relations (foreign policy) of the national (central) government. On the other hand, there are legal gaps in the field of city diplomacy in Iran, and the lack of sufficient power to delegate sufficient powers to urban management to facilitate the management of communication between international cities is quite evident. In general, city diplomacy in Iran has not been able to use all its potential capacities as it should, and as a result, it has led to the weakening of city diplomacy in the country.
Keywords
City Diplomacy
Globalization
Iran
Meta-Synthesis

Subjects

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Urban Economics and Planning
Volume 5, Issue 4
Winter 2025
Pages 98-116

  • Receive Date 13 November 2024
  • Revise Date 28 December 2024
  • Accept Date 17 January 2025