A comparative study of participatory land-use planning and the theory of the right to the city

Participatory Land use planning (PLUP) has recently become a significant element of planning in developing countries. Nevertheless, despite the appropriate goals, implementation still needs to be clarified in practical cases that jeopardize effective participation. Also, the formation of the necessary grounds for discussing the concept of the right to the city (RTTC) is crucial due to the significance of the rule of urban land use planning and participation to achieve citizenship rights. This qualitative research aims to provide a systematic review and a conceptual framework for the connection between RTTC and PLUP. We systematically reviewed 72 articles in English and specific documents available in Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, ScienceDirect, DOAJ, and JSTOR databases that have considered PLUP and RTTC subjects from 1968 to 2020. In this context, we have defined a step-by-step search protocol that clearly defines the process of achieving the goal. The results show these concepts have gone through three time periods together: Examination of the conceptual basis and the theoretical basis (1968–2000), Mounting different dimensions and characteristics on the previous basis and leading to more mature concepts (2000–2010), and Emergence of spatial justice in the right to the city concept, forming a suitable platform for implementing and monitoring PLUP (2010-now). Also, we classified characteristics into two thematic areas (Context & Practice) and the related sub-areas in the proposed conceptual framework.