Journal of Iranian Social Studies
Year:2009 | Volume:2 | Issue:2 (4) (SPECIAL ISSUE ON URBAN AND NEIGHBOR HOOD)|Papers Count:8

Cities and urban systems have been and will remain central to the economic development of most countries. A rapidly increasing share of the world's population is living in cities. In the next 15 years the population of many cities in Asia and Africa will nearly double. In order to confront the challenges posed by this unprecedented rate of urban growth which is accompanied by an increasing urban poverty, cities need to provide solid and urgent planning now in order to make more informed choices about the future. City development strategy (CDS) supports cities in this critical decision making process and is focused on implementation. It is an action-plan for equitable growth in cities and their surrounding regions, developed and sustained through participation, to improve the quality of life for all citizens. The essential goals of CDS are: Assess the state of the city and its region; Develop a long-term vision; Act now with focus on results; Value the contributions of the poor; Encourage local business growth; Engage networks of cities; Focus on implementation; Concentrate on priorities; and Foster local leadership. The Alliance supports cities in preparing city development strategies that link their economic growth and poverty reduction objectives, which often includes citywide slum upgrading strategies. In this paper we will try to show the CDS process with focus on the city of Kerman.

The bulk of research on deviant behavior has mainly been concerned with the relationship between social class and antisocial behavior, thus neglecting the interacting role of social class and characteristics of residential area on people’s psychological dispositions as the root cause of many instances of deviant behavior. This article, therefore, attempts to explain the interaction between social class and social area characteristics on the people's psychological dispositions seen as negative emotions. These emotions are understood as contributing to the development of instances of antisocial behavior in settings such as social isolation, alienation, powerlessness, hopelessness, and the like. Our specific approach in this study is the social space distribution in the city as the explanatory factor of psychological dispositions or negative emotions in lieu of other social structural parameter and relations. This is a survey-method research and its main data gathering instrument is the questionnaire. The findings show that the role of social class and the residential area, each in its own way and in interaction with each other, on creation of negative emotions is undeniable, that and the study of these factors is a promising area which can further help in the explanation of deviant behaviors.

The present paper focuses on the study of the network social capital in Tehran's ten neighborhoods, located in districts 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. In this paper, social capital is considered from a social network approach, also known as network social capital. The study is based on 318 face-to-face interviews with men and women who were selected randomly from five districts in Tehran. The results indicate that the networks are composed of ties with family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers, where about half of the relations are with family members. Although individuals are known to be fairly familiar with notable figures of their neighbors, they have not seen as depending on their local ties. Moreover, here, voluntary activities of the respondents at the local level have been taken into consideration.The final section of this paper, in addition to discussing the importance of paying attention to neighborhoods and districts for their beneficial functions, places emphasis on the point that concentrating on neighborhoods and local relationships separately is highly likely to fail. Only with the creation of more opportunities for the formation of personal networks and the facilitation of communication between individuals, it would be possible to benefit from all the potentials of a modem city.

One of the consequences of rapid growth of urbanization in developing countries, as a way of passing though modernity, has been the appearance of intercity slums, called here 'poverty Islands'. In this paper we have developed a qualitative and ethnographic survey of one of these little slums: Mehran quarter situated in the 4th district of Tehran which is nearly 25 years old. Mehran is physically divided by a highway and partly destroyed, but still has a population of about 40 families originating from different Iranian ethnic groups: Azeris, Lurs, and Kurds. The ethnographical survey demonstrates that shaping and evolution of space have taken place under the influence of ethnic characteristics. In addition, this article tries to show the importance of an anthropological and ethnicity oriented approach in help the urban policy makers in this case and other urban areas which are likely to become slums. In other words, studies like the present one aim to develop for urban policy makers, more coherent and humane ways for finding sound solutions for these kinds of populations, particularly in the Iranian metropolitan centers.

Following evolution of socio-spatial structure of great cities, there have been applied efforts to develop macro plans for urban development concentrating on reforming the internal fabric of these cities and increasing their institutional capabilities. A glance over the nature of urban development plans reveals that their main focus has been the improvement of urban structure and application of methods that would result in enhancement of overall quality of life in the developed sections urban setting at the expense of neglecting small-scale urban issues, activities and institutions in less developed sections. For this reason many urban networks particularly those located in marginal areas could not use the benefits of macro urban plans. An increasing trend in the immigrant’s population, on the one hand, and the rapid growth of other sections, such as in service and housing have resulted in an intensification of socio-spatial imbalance in which the populations of marginal neighborhood have been at loss. A number of facts are demonstrative of this point, as far as problems such as unequal socio-spatial structure, poor services, and distribution system are concerned. These underdeveloped cities are mostly located in third world countries that are sadly experiencing these problems. Moreover, such problems are the origin of many other urban maladies, on the level of city, such associal inequality, urban crimes, delinquency, social abnormalities, and urban poverty and so on.In recent years the attention is shifted toward micro scale of analysis and planning process. Urban neighborhood as a unit of analysis and management became the focus of many research works. Particularly there has appeared an attention to regeneration poor urban neighborhood as the foundation of development of general structure of city. Urban neighborhood regeneration based on of community development planning framework is a way in which planners could attempt to rebuild the internal structure of poor neighborhoods, change the quality of people, and increase the possibilities of making services and provisions affordable. After the failure of the use of the macro level of analysis it seems necessary to apply a new approach in the analysis and production of a sustainable policy for future of urban development which can be concentrated on neighborhood-based and citizen-oriented rather than concentrating on an overall system-improvement. This article argues that the Community Development Planning can be conceptualized as a new approach and it means to reconstruction of poor areas in developing cities. However, in this paper the main aim is to develop the sociological aspect of community development planning approach and to direct attention towards its results for the city life and urban regeneration in general.

Urbanization as a consequence of modernity, while bringing welfare and facilities, has resulted in increased risks of life for human beings. Giddens and Beck are two sociologists who see the modem society as a risk society and have studied risk and its impact on social relations. One important part of risk studies is risk perception. It has psychological, sociological and economical approaches. The risk perception studies can be utilized in policy making and planning, aiming at risk reduction. There are not ample evidences on social studies of urban risks in Iran. The current studies show that the Iranian citizens have a modem perception on manmade risks but for economical and living problems the attention to risk reduction methods is not included in their priorities. Although the people have a strong tendency for training on risk reduction methods, but for structural and personal problems, the responsible organizations are not sufficiently prepared.

Social security, along with the individual security, is the fundamental human need which has been very significant since the emergence of social life (Maslow and Hertzberg theory). Increasing attention is being paid to the issue of social security in metropolitan areas such as the city of Tehran. Such concerns are due to the unreasonable expansion of the city and undisciplined increase in the number of its districts. Acknowledging that the use of the improved facilities and instruments can to some extent be beneficial in preventing crime and delinquency, this article tries to shed more light on the role of people's collaboration for establishing local security through NGOs. .The significance of local, nongovernmental organizations lies in the fact that setting up NGOs, provides the suitable base for social security and stimulate people especially the young to voluntarily participate in decision making and goal setting for local affairs at different levels and branches. A survey conducted in two districts of Tehran (Amirieh and Shahrake Jandarmeri) concluded that low level security, both financial or life security, on the one hand and lack of safe condition for children under 10 years old, on the other, caused a great deal of anxiety and concern for families in Tehran. Furthermore, many people expressed their readiness to take part in local security organization which did not show significant difference between, married or unmarried people, women or men.Generally people's collaboration can result in more economic and more effective ways of security. Finally, a model was designed for the role of these NGOs and their responsibilities.

One of the main policies of Islamic Republic of Iran, within the framework of organizing the metropolitan populations in Iran, has been the formation and expansion of new towns. The most important indicator for locating of new towns consists of physical, biological indicator, and local resources. This study aims, through the use of urban and rural ecological potential model, to examine natural ability of places considered for formation of three new towns (Hashtgerd, Parand and Andisheh). Studies indicate that Hashtgerd has the best circumstances and can be developed, while other towns; Parand and Andisheh, are sequentially placed on second and third position. Thus, empirical studies were carried out in this field which resulted in findings that point to suggestions which are offered.