Objective: Integrated rural development planning is the result of a series of different developments in planning, economy, politics and sociology in the last decade, which has become necessary due to globalization and decentralization on a local or regional scale. This type of thinking mechanism planning It is based and problem-oriented and seeks to answer the three basic questions of what, why and how in a people-oriented and place-oriented framework and deals with this issue with integrated rationality. Planning issues and problems have emerged at the national level. The examination and evaluation of the ecosystem within the realm of global studies pertaining to integrated development planning hold significant importance, specifically in light of institutional pluralism, aimed at mitigating disparities in rural areas. Numerous insights can be gleaned from research outcomes and strategies in the realm of development and rural progress. Hence, the primary objective of the present study is to methodically scrutinize the knowledge network concerning integrated development planning by scrutinizing the co-occurrence network of terminologies and collaborative authorship within this domain, in order to uncover patterns of knowledge, origins, and their limitations.
Methods: This research is applied in terms of type, which uses the scientometric approach to review scientific documents. In the current research, the social network analysis method has been used to analyze and explain both vocabulary and authorship of related studies in the entire network. In the initial phase of the methodology, data was retrieved from the Scopus database, followed by stages of refining concepts, and ultimately, the conclusive data was scrutinized utilizing algorithms grounded in social network analysis through VOSviewer software.
Results: The findings revealed that among 93 scholarly works and 191 authors, countries like South Africa, England, and the United States exhibited the highest number of publications, with scholars such as Madziohendila, Van Niekerk, Asha, and Banda receiving notable references. Furthermore, the intellectual cluster associated with Chakwizera demonstrated the highest density within the network. Also, the results of this study showed that researches on integrated development planning have been carried out from different dimensions and in diverse and related ecosystems in such a way that it covers different levels and links from urban to rural spaces. Analysis of word co-occurrence also brought to light 6 distinct research clusters within the scope of integrated development planning studies, focusing on aspects like comprehensiveness, urban planning, local governance, participation, sustainable development, and spatial justice.
Conclusions: The insights garnered from scrutinizing the knowledge network and visualizing its structure in this study could potentially yield significant advancements in adopting a comprehensive, rational, and expert-driven approach to socio-political planning, thereby opening up new avenues for further study and implementation.
