Contribution of Immigrant Planners to the Planning Process in Stockholm : The Case of Iranian Planners with Iranian Background

Sammanfattning: This thesis examines the contribution of Iranian immigrant planners and social practitioners to urban planning in Sweden. It evokes the researches that celebrate diversity in planning profession as a golden key to reach the just city. This study aims to test this claim as well as to explore the possible ways through which immigrant planners in Stockholm might be able to bring benefits to their workforce. Adopting the characteristics of an admired planning method in a “just city”, this thesis will outline the advantages and disadvantages that Iranian planners have faced with at their work. The empirical analysis is built on the basis of observation and individual interviews with 7 Iranian background planners and 2 non-Iranian in Stockholm. The applied method for such analysis is content analysis of the interviews. The findings show planning system in Sweden, at least at local level, is not very open that let planners act very much different from each other. The differences are mostly in process and not in result. The main contribution of immigrant planners’ local and cultural knowledge is in the field of language. However, it seems that diversity in planning profession, in long term, have influenced other planners’ attitude regarding minority communities.