Transformative Environmental Governance for Addressing Wicked Problems in the Iranian Context: Institutional and Policy Dynamics in Tehran

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

Graduate Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, P. O. Box 14178-53111, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/poll.2026.409102.3260

Abstract

Air pollution in the Tehran megacity constitutes a persistent and politically contested environmental wicked problem in the Middle East, marked by uncertainty, multi-scalar causality, and entrenched institutional and political–economic lock-ins. Despite decades of regulatory reforms and technological upgrading, air quality outcomes remain unstable, revealing structural limitations of centralized, command-and-control governance. Fragmented sectoral mandates, weak inter-organizational coordination, selective enforcement, and limited collective learning capacity have constrained responses to the nonlinear and conflictual dynamics of urban pollution. This qualitative case study examines how a transformative environmental governance framework clarifies the institutional, cognitive, and relational conditions required to confront such intractable challenges under constrained political openness and asymmetric power relations. Drawing on systematic analysis of policy and legal documents, semi-structured interviews with governmental, municipal, scientific, and civil-society actors, and policy process tracing, the study reconstructs the evolution of Tehran’s air pollution regime. It identifies structural barriers, path dependencies, regime-stabilizing incentives, and power asymmetries that sustain policy inertia. Findings reveal four interdependent yet politically contingent leverage points: adaptive institutional redesign to strengthen cross-sectoral integration; multi-actor co-production across state, municipal, market, and civil domains; reflexive social learning to harmonize problem framings across scales; and anticipatory policy innovation grounded in foresight and precaution. However, these mechanisms remain fragile due to centralized authority, energy subsidy regimes, and protection of regime-affiliated economic interests. The article proposes a conditionally transferable model of transformative environmental governance, specifying enabling conditions and structurally reinforced failure dynamics, and outlining politically feasible strategies for metropolitan air quality reform in restrictive political contexts.

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References

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Pollution
Volume 12, Issue 2
May 2026
Pages 614-625

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