NGOs, Public Participation and Urban Community Development: Social Reform in Local Urban Governance in Iran

The paper describes there is a social reform after 1980s in wakes of economic reform in local urban Iran. The research focuses on the new and evolving local governance model and its three salient features, those include autonomy in residents committee, development of NGOs, public participation and volunteering. The social reform is at the turning point from vertical administrative pattern to civil society based local urban management pattern. The paper suggests the key issue to advance social reform is that government relaxes its control and empowers to the society, and it is needed to make institutional breakthrough with bottom up community development.

NGO, Public Participation, Community Development, Social Reform