Seyed Jalal Faraji - Department of Public and Urban Management, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.
Ahmad Zanganeh - Faculty of Geographical Sciences, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran.
Pouria Pirastefar - MSc. of Urban Management, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.
Hamed Hedari - Ph.D. of Sociology, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran.

Cultural geopolitics refers to a complex set of interactions among government, power, culture and geographical environment through which the cultural factor, along with the spatial-locational processes formed by the city government, engages actors from various social strata in interaction. It is then very important to identify relationships between the components of the smart urban governance and cultural geopolitics in the political-regional development of metropolises and their globalization process. This developmental research employed a descriptive-analytical method, and the necessary data were collected through library and field research. The collected data were analyzed through decision making trial and evaluation laboratory (DEMATEL) technique using Excel software, and finally, a network of factors was extracted and plotted using Microsoft Visio software. Based on the strength of interaction and affectability of the factors, a network of relations was obtained. The most affecting factor was found to be the participation in decision-making on electronic issues, and the least affecting factor was the political vision and strategy. The other affecting factors were ICT network scope and internet access, online public services, information transparency, and ethnic and national identity (nationalist belonging), respectively. In addition, the most affected factor was the geographical and spatial-locational belonging, and the least affected factor was the political vision and strategy.

Smart urban governance, cultural geopolitics, Cultural factors, Geo-culture