Nowadays, planning is no longer considered merely a scientific and technical career nor a government responsibity. It rather functions as a bridge connecting the planners to institutional changes. In other words, the planning theory does not develop in a social, economic and political vacuum, but is formulated by individuals in social situations with the aim of clarifying the enviroment recommending appropriate procedures and processes. The purpose of this research was to identify the explanatory and normative capability of the Strategic Structural Plans theory in the context of institutionalism so as to enhance the capacity of its application in practice. For this purpose, the grounded theory was adopted as a research strategy within the framework of qualitative methodology. The data collection instruments involved desk study, interviews with experts, managers and specialists, collaborative observations on the environment. The research environment included macro and micro levels. At the macro level, the focus was on comprehensible conditions and components of Iranian spatial planning system, while the micro level served to exامینe on the local scale the urban planning and management through sample mining in Mashhad, Iran. As a result of this analysis, a total of 159 concepts, 44 categories and 9 major categories and 6 topics were recognized. Among the categories identified, institutionalism in the theory of Strategic Structural Plans was selected because of the frequent appearance in the data and its relation to other categories as axial category, where the paradigm model was outlined emphasizing on the causal and context condition, intervention, strategies and consequences.
