URBAN STUDIES
Year:2018 | Volume:8 | Issue:28 |Papers Count:7

Civic participation is considered to be the key component in achieving the goals of urban management development. It is a process through which the inexperienced and ordinary people of a community experience and practice the power to make decisions with regard to the ordinary affairs in their community. There are several factors that determine the degree and intensity of civic participation. The present study, entitled “ An Analysis of Social Factors Affecting Civic Participation: An empirical assessment of Social Capital Theory” , investigates the impact of factors such as people trusting each other, public’ s trust in city administration, membership in local parties and associations, and the media on civic participation and the tendency toward civic participation. The theoretical framework of this study is based on Social Capital Theory. The research undertaken here is an applied survey study. The data was gathered using a questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which was calculated using the Cochran formula. Cluster sampling method was used to select 881 residents from the 22 districts of Tehran, the capital of Iran. The data was analyzed using the SPSS and AMOS softwares. The findings of the study revealed that the Social Capital Theory can explain and predict up to 59 percent of the changes in civic participation. After the introduction of inclination to civic participation, 62 percent of the changes in civic participation could be explained and predicted. Confidence in the urban management institution in the first model and membership in parties and local communities in the second model had the most influence in explaining the Social Capital theory, while the media had the least influence. The findings also revealed a below average participation in municipal and neighborhood affairs on the part of the residents.

The problem of this research is the social underdevelopment of informal settlements in the city of kerman. The research population consisted of four informal settlements of Shahrake pedar, Shahrake sanati, Shahrake Sayyad Shirazi and Shahrake poshte bande mamlekat. The research method employed was qualitative with grounded theory approach and the paradigmatic model strategy. Purposive sampling technique was utilized and in-depth interview at two levels of institutional structure and local community was used to gather needed data. Strauss and Corbin method of constant comparative was employed in the analysis of data. The number of interviews at the local level were 43, the number of concepts formed were 24 and the number of categories created 10 cases. 17 interviews were carried out at the level of institutional structure whiche resulted in 7 concepts and the creation of 3 categories. The ideas of Lincoln and Gooba were utilized for validity assessment and those of Kerk and Miller were employed to reliability. The findings showed that, due to the continuation of causal conditions of the phenomenon of economic underdevelopment of informal settlements, the background conditions and non-specialized interventions of institutional structures, and the strategies used by residents of informal settlements in Kerman city, programs that intended to bring about positive change in these settlement, despite the passage of more than 10 years, have not led to the expected outcomes. It appears that the road for participatory development towards economic development has not yet been paved.

The development of new communication technologies, and at the top of that the Internet and communication networks, has provided a space for rebuilding identity. In this context, the linking of the fundamental elements of identity, that is, the time, place, space, and the boundaries of social life, is influenced strongly by these new communication technologies. The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of virtual social networks on the national identity and ethnic identity of people aged 18 to 40 years in the city of Noorabad, Delfan. The sample size is estimated at 384 people using the Cochran formula. Validity and credibility were obtained through Cronbach's Alpha and formal credentials. The findings of this research showed that virtual social networks have a significant effect on ethnic identity. Also, the results of the regression test showed that virtual social networks predict 72% of the changes in ethnic identity of respondents in the present study. Also, the findings of this study showed that social networks have a significant effect on national identity. The results of regression test indicated that the independent variables of the present research predict about 24% of the changes in the national identity of respondents

The present article aims to investigate the role of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in promoting the sense of social security in Isfahan city. In this research, some dimensions and components of sense of security (sense of financial security, sense of human security, sense of social security) were taken into account that sociologists and psychologists have focused attention on. In this research, the variables of socioeconomic status, social responsibility, social consciousness and social capital, and the duration of membership in NGOs were taken as independent variables and the sense of social security was considered as the dependent variable. The research method in this study was a survey method and a quota sampling method was used. The research population consisted of all active and accessible non-governmental organizations in the city of Isfahan, which numbered 30 organizations with a total of 24, 240 members. The results of showed that the sense of security has a positive relationship with social capital, social consciousness and social status. Also, analysis of variance showed that the least difference in mean of sense of security among people with different education and gender is significant. Regarding multivariate regression analysis, it can be concluded that there is a relationship between sense of security and multiple variables of social capital, social consciousness, social status, and social responsibility.

This study aims to analyze the role of urban management in social and cultural sustainability of urban neighborhoods so as to express differences among various groups and subcultures and while paying attention to the developments of urban space, try to explain the role of urban management in social homogeneity, neighborhood identity, vitality, place belongingness and security as the indecis of neighborhood sustainability. This is a descriptive-analytic study questionnaires to gather data and utilized the SPSS software to analyze the data. In order to rank areas in terms of sustainability, VIKOR models, AHP and Export Choice Software have been used. The results indicated that the independent variables had a significant impact on the socio-cultural sustainability of Piranshahr’ s urban neighborhoods. In fact, the results of multivariate regression analysis were indivative of a significant relationship between the dependent and independent variables above 95% with an alpha less than 5%. This means that the improper functioning of urban management results in the unsustainability of urban neighborhoods. T-test results showed that of the indices that were considered, only “ place belongingness” , with a difference of 0/7047, as compared to the theoretical average had a favorable impact. It also showed that, of the ethnic groups living in the city, the "Mangur", enjoying the greatest amount of participation in political and administrative structure of the city, had the highest level of satisfaction (0/54). Finally, as far as sustainability ranking of neighborhoods is concerned, "Farhangian" ranked first, with a score of 287/57.

The purpose of this research was to investigate the diversity of social identities in Tehran and the factors that threaten social solidarity in the neighborhoods. The research population consisted of all people over 15 years old in Tehran of which 730 individuals were selected as the sample. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. The results showed that the variables ethnicity, unequal development, awareness of citizenship rights, feelings of discrimination, injustice, communication and information media, have a significant effect on social solidarity. Regression analysis showed that social solidarity had a strong and direct effect on ethnicity (0. 340), unequal development (3. 40), awareness of citizenship rights (0. 487), feelings of discrimination, profligacy and injustice (0. 380), media for communication and information (0. 318). This variable indirectly affects the variables of feeling of discrimination, profligacy and inequity with weight (0. 298), and on the unequal developmental variable, which is totally weighted by 0. 558 on the dependent variable.

The concept of citizenship rights is a phenomenon that has attracted a lot of attention in the political and social arenas, and the sense of social security is considered to be a solid citizen's right and that awareness of these rights can be beneficial to communities. This study tries to study the relationship between social capital, citizenship commitment of individuals and social participation with citizenship rights among the residents of Semnan city. This is an applied and descriptive study which has been carried out by survey method. The research sample included 255 residents over 15 of age years in Semnan city. A Likert-type questionnaire was used to collect information. Structural equations’ modeling was used to analyze research data with Smart-PLS software. Research results showed that social capital, citizenship commitment of individuals and social participation have a significant relationship with citizenship rights. In addition, social capital and social participation have a meaningful relationship with the sense of social security. Finally, a meaningful relationship was found between citizenship rights and a feeling of social security.