Mehdi Razpour, P.H. D student will complete his P.H. D thesis on “Understanding the Role of Actors Network in the Changes of the Border Regions Spatial Organization " July, 14th 2019- 7:45 am The Amphitheatre of ShahidMaddah.

 
Abstract
Today, urban and regional planning has entered a complex process in which a set of actors and decision-makers are making decisions about the present and future status of the city and the region. Due to this evolution in the planning system, the planner's position has changed from a technocratic technician and decision maker to a facilitator of the interaction between actors and a manager of conflict between them. Planning in the border areas has also entered a new phase through the role of actors in decision making, which has affected the developments of the spatial organization in these areas. Because of the opportunities of cross-border relations and also the role of actors network of border economy governance, the spatial organization of Baneh County in Kurdistan province, has undergone massive changes in micro and macro scale of space, over the past few years. These changes are unsustainable, because of many internal and external effective factors and the role of local, regional and national actors. The result is a large change in the spatial organization of the city and the peripheral area. In this regard, the purpose of this thesis is to analyze the various changes of the spatial organization at micro and macro levels, influenced by the role of the network of actors governing the border economy in this county. To achieve the research goal, there are questions in two parts which are about the changes of spatial organization of Baneh County and also the role of the actors network. The construction of this research has been based on the inner ontology and the epistemological approach of critical interpretation. To answer the research questions, the qualitative method was used relying on the use of grounded theory tools. The network theory of actors was used as a qualitative operational strategy. Document analysis, field observation, interviews, questionnaires, fingerprinting and condition analysis are the operational tools of the research. The results of the study showed that the network of actors involved in the management of the cross-border economy has a great influence on the changes of the spatial organization of Baneh County. The network is implementing a decision at three levels: local (Baneh city), regional (Kurdistan province) and national. There is a strong connection between all components of the network, but the role of local actors is more operational, and the role of national level actors is more in decision making. This led to the mode of governance of this network be placed in hierarchical governance class with a command and control approach. Continuing this type of governance cannot lead to local development in Baneh County. So, an acceptable mechanism was proposed for participatory governance and community-based management in order to creating sustainable local development.
Keywords: Actors Network, Border Regions Governance, Cross-Border Economic Relations, Spatial Organization Changes, Baneh Border County.