Abstract:

Regional inequalities and the resulting unbalanced development are considered important challenges in the political management of the regions of countries and their political-administrative territories. In Iran, under the influence of the centralized political system, the dominant pattern of the spatial organization of the country's development is the center-periphery one, whose spatial manifestation is reflected in the uneven development of political-administrative territories and, consequently, the emergence of regional divergences. In this regard, Fars province, as the fourth largest province and with the largest number of political-administrative territories (counties and districts) among the provinces of the country, is currently facing development differences at its level and with the peripheral units of neighboring provinces. Therefore, in this study, by analyzing the content of the views of citizens of the peripheral territories of Fars province, the divergent tendencies resulting from unbalanced development were examined and explained. The results of the research showed that in some regions, despite the historical affiliation and identity ties of the marginal political-administrative territories with the provincial body, the motivations for progress and development, especially in the economic field, have gradually overcome their identity ties and have strengthened divergent tendencies to annex neighboring provinces.