Identifying Policy-making and Planning Challenges in Rural Areas of Iran by Thematic Analysis Method

Extended abstract:
Introduction:
Achieving development in rural areas has always been of interest to researchers in developing countries. The most important pillar of development can be considered the way society is governed to achieve development. The decisions that are made to achieve these goals are called policies and the process of study, planning, decision making and ultimately implementation in the rural environment is called policy making. The place where these decisions are made has certain conditions and characteristics. In this research, we seek to understand the main challenges of rural policy making and management so that this knowledge can lead to more correct decisions for the rural regions management. The most important role for the implementation of decisions in the village is the management of rural communities.
It is in drawing the links between the shifts in the social mode of regulation and the form and practices of new governance that rural studies have been shown particular reluctance – especially in terms of any engagement with theory. The researchers believe that rural management should significantly reduce rural migration, eliminate the socio-economic gap between the towns and villages, promote agricultural development and develop a culture of self-belief in rural areas, and reduce rural poverty. And the term is so broad that it loses its meaning.
Methodology:
In this study by thematic analysis method, Policy themes and challenges for managing Iran's rural areas have been identified. The information was collected through semi-structured interviews and study of sources and documents. By coding these interviews, we proceeded to the analysis of each and to the next sample by purposeful sampling. Content analysis is actually a way of identifying, analyzing, and reporting patterns in qualitative data. It is also a process for analyzing contextual data and converts scattered and varied data into rich processed and detailed data. In order to document the discovered concepts and themes, quotes from geography and rural planning experts have been used and interviews and open question design have been conducted according to the existing theoretical literature and studies in the field of rural management, good governance, policy-making and planning. Also, the experience of researchers and previous studies has been done.
Results and discussion:
The results show that 17 out of 122 open source codes were identified, which can be divided into 6 categories of organizing themes. Finally, by identifying and discovering the basic and organizing themes and finding the relationships between the main themes and challenges, a diagram describing the characteristics and factors influencing the identification of policy themes for the management of Iranian rural areas was drawn. From this model it can be assumed that the theme in which these decisions are made must be taken into consideration. These concepts fall into six categories: Rurality, the historical process, the environment as an effective factor and form of policy, the role of culture in rural policy making and management, the role of culture in rural policy making and management, impact and goals. Economic policies and the place of participation in policymaking and management of rural communities were categorized as organizing themes of the research topic. The study also found new results that could be used in rural policy making and management. Another important issue is the effect of the economy and economic policy objectives. Another theme of the research is the role of culture in rural policy making and management, which emphasizes both the cultural context of Iranian villages (customs, customs, religion, etc.) and the need to recognize and influence its culture. Policies and decisions made for the village. Understanding the characteristics of the rural context for policymaking and understanding each one's relationship to decision-making, considering the environment as an effective factor in policymaking as well as the form of decisions and policies, the need to know the historical course of management and the management of rural areas. And past successful and unsuccessful experiences. The most important contributions of the codes have been the themes of organizing Historicity and participation in the policy-making and management of rural communities, each with 24 codes, which shows the greater emphasis of experts on these topics.
Conclusion:
The results of the analysis indicate that in policymaking we should pay attention to the culture of the rural community, the independent social, economic and environmental identity of each village and the historical process of management in Iranian villages. Also, in order to better understand the current way of managing the villages, one should know about the historical development of rural management in Iran. He recognized the positive and negative impacts of the policies and decisions that have historically been taken for the management of rural communities and the plans and programs that have been developed to develop these areas as policy themes and challenges. The importance of the environmental context has been emphasized on rural policy-making and management, and attention to the environment has been formed as an influential factor and the basis of policy-making as well as form, and the result of policy implementation is very necessary for experts. If we want rural development and good management of rural communities, we must take into account the culture of rural society in policy making, taking into account the independent social, economic and environmental identity of each village and the environment as an influential factor in the policies and contexts. It was also seen as a form of policy making. Finally, it can be said that the current state of policymaking for the management of Iran's rural areas is irresponsible considering these basic themes. It is necessary to achieve the policy goals and the proper management of the villages to help the people themselves and to participate in all the policy making and implementation processes.
Keywords: Policy making, Challenges, Rural development, Rural Areas of Iran.