Reconstructing Embedded and Historical Rationalities in Urban Strategic Planning: Evidence from Six Strategic Plans of Isfahan Municipality

Asgari, Mohammad Hossein; Masoud, Mohammad; Shoukuhi Dolatabadi, Mahmood

doi:10.22034/ijumes.2026.2090187.1367

Reconstructing Embedded and Historical Rationalities in Urban Strategic Planning: Evidence from Six Strategic Plans of Isfahan Municipality

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Mohammad Hossein Asgari ¹

Mohammad Masoud ²

Mahmood Shoukuhi Dolatabadi ³

¹ Ph.D. candidate of Urban Planning, Department of Urban planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

² Professor of Urban Planning, Department of Urban planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

³ Assistant professor of Urban Design, Department of Urban planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Art University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

10.22034/ijumes.2026.2090187.1367

Abstract

Urban strategic plans function as interpretive spaces in which planning rationalities are constructed and transformed over time. This study aims to reconstruct the embedded and historical rationalities within six consecutive strategic plans of Isfahan Municipality (2001–2026). Drawing on the linguistic turn, embedded and historical rationality, and assemblage thinking, the study employs a qualitative interpretivist design and thematic analysis, combining synchronic reading of each plan with diachronic comparison across the sequence. The synchronic analysis identifies six distinct embedded rationalities (incipient problem-oriented, managerial-administrative, normatively expansive, aspirational-visionary, differentiated governance, and consolidative-operational), while the diachronic analysis reveals four trajectory patterns (permanent core, cumulative layer, oscillating themes, and ephemeral themes) that together form a historical rationality best understood as a selective, layered, and adaptive continuity. This framework shifts the unit of interpretation from the presence or absence of individual themes to the trajectories through which planning priorities are retained, accumulated, reinterpreted, or abandoned, offering an analytical lens applicable to other cities and planning contexts where sequential series of strategic documents are available.

Graphical Abstract

Reconstructing Embedded and Historical Rationalities in Urban Strategic Planning: Evidence from Six Strategic Plans of Isfahan Municipality

Highlights

· A two-level interpretive framework was developed to reconstruct planning rationality from strategic documents through synchronic and diachronic thematic analysis.

· Six distinct embedded rationalities were identified across Isfahan's strategic plans, evolving from incipient problem-oriented to consolidative-operational logic.

· Four mutually exclusive trajectory patterns were defined: permanent core, cumulative layer, oscillating themes, and ephemeral themes.

· Assemblage theory was operationalized through territorialization, reterritorialization, and deterritorialization to explain how planning priorities attach, detach, and reconfigure across time.

· National development plans, the statutory framework, municipal councils, and mayoral tenures were shown to condition the timing and direction of thematic change without determining it.

· The framework distinguishes apparent continuity from substantive continuity and thematic change from changes in underlying planning rationality.

Keywords

Assemblage

embedded rationality

historical rationality

thematic analysis

urban strategic planning

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