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Ali Madanipour is Professor of Urban Design and the Director of Global Urban Research Unit at Newcastle University (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/guru/). He has studied (MArch, PhD), practiced, researched, and taught architecture, urban design and planning, winning design and research awards, and working with academic and municipal partners from around the world. His work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Persian and Spanish. His visiting positions include the City of Vienna Senior Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Vienna (2010), the Wits-Claude Leon Distinguished Scholar at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (2011), and Visiting Professor at the Polytechnic of Milan (2015).
The impact of civic associations on urban governance in Iran may be limited as they do not possess an official capacity in a highly bureaucratic and centralized system, and have been suspected of advocating a liberal political agenda. Nevertheless, they have, among other things, succeeded in democratizing the urban agenda.
