URBAN STUDIES
Year:2016 | Volume:6 | Issue:18|Papers Count:7

The dramatic expansion of urbanization in recent years has created certain problems that cannot be solved using traditional methods in urban management. In other words, the issue that ensures urban development is, in fact people's participation in urban activities. Participation in the process of citizenship is based on rights and responsibility or obligations. In this regard, the promotion of residents' awareness and knowledge of their rights and responsibilities towards urban affairs seems to be the most effective way. The present Study analyzes residents' awareness of urban affairs using civic theories of Marx, Habermas, and Turner. The research employed the survey method. Sari was divided into three areas using Stratified and random sampling. The sample all residents 18 years old and above. Results indicated that awareness of rights is higher than responsibilities. It also was found that using mass media and civic participation •had a significant relationship with awareness of responsibilities. In addition, so-cio-economic status and use of mass media .had a significant relationship with awareness of rights.

Social capital and place attachment are among important concepts and are of the resources of a local community. Social values of a place can improve the sense of belonging and attachment to the community and thereby ensure sustainability and local identification. In this regard and in order to promote social values of urban neighborhoods, in this paper, the role of social capital in the creation of place attachment in traditional areas in Hamadan is examined. This is a descriptive - analytical research which used questionnaires to collect needed data. Also, due to the objectives and research questions-in this Study and in order to calculate and analyze the loadings and the correlation coefficient among the components and indicators of social capital and a sense of attachment to place, LIZREL SPSS software were used. The results showed that social capital of a place had a significant effect on place attachment. The four items of the human element, location, social values, and time are influential in determining place attachment, whereby time, through variables like interaction with the past, memories, length of Stay, and the like, can have an important effect on place attachment.

In the current century, environmental behaviors have been considered as one of the most important and influential factors in the environment by many sociologists. Environmental behaviors, in addition to affecting most environmental issues and threats, themselves are affected by some factors. The present Study aims at Studying the amount of the effect of cultural factors on responsible environmental behaviors. The theoretical framework of the research was provided by Fishbein & Ajzen rational theory and Fietkau & Kessel and Olander & Thogersen models. The research population of this Study consisted of all of the residents of Kermanshah who were over the age of 15, of which. based on Cochran formula 410 were selected as the sample using multi-Stage cluster sampling technique. This Study was a survey research that used questionnaires for collecting the data. The findings showed that the mean of the residents' environmental behaviors was a little above the average (3.1), and there were significant relationships between variables of environmental value, belief, and knowledge with environ-mental behaviors, while there was no significant relationships between the level of education and environmental behaviors. Also the residents' environmental behaviors were different according to their gender, marital Status, and age groups. The results of regression analysis showed that the independent variables can explain 0.13% of the variance of dependent variable. Generally, we can say that it is, in fact, the cultural factors can predict the policies of promulgation of responsible environmental behaviors.

Urban ethnography, as one among qualitative methods maintains that a humanistic approach should be used for the Study of the city. In fact, urban ethnography observes the world on the basis of participants' referent viewpoint, and the researcher participates himself/herself actively in the life and the situation of members. Furthermore, peculiar events are also taken notice of. The researcher directly observes the ordinary events and activities as they happen in the natural settings, and he/she personally experiences the everyday social life in the field. The history of urban ethnography Starts from the city of Chicago. W.I. Thomas is one the eminent figures in the establishment of the Chicago school and he Started the social Study of the urban problems in the Chicago city prior to War I that included subjects such as migration, women, minority groups, social deviance and etc. In fact he maintains that combating the social problems and deviances calls for the precise recognition and .analysis of these issues. What was important for him was that we should recognize the individual's attitude in their situation, and it is on this basis that we can understand the individual's mental orientations in the society.

Every change in a city brings with it positive and negative effects on different aspects of life like residents' quality of life, social capital, etc. This is also true about major economic projects like wholesale greenery outlets. and hypermarkets. In I ran, not many systematic Studies have been carried out to assess the positive and negative impacts of such changes on local social networks. Hence, the present Study focuses on the impact of wholesale greenery outlets and hypermarkets on local communities, especially on their social interactions and trends. The data were collected through quasi-experimental questionnaires. The research population consisted of the customers of Shahran wholesale greenery outlet and Hyper Star located in District 5, Tehran, Iran. A sample size of 380 for the selected population was determined by Cochran formula. The population was accessed in a systematic fashion. An independent t-test and Pearson's correlation coefficient were also used to analyze the data. The independent t-test results indicated that social interactions differ in wholesale greenery outlets from the Hyper Star. In other words, the residents believe that local wholesale greenery outlets reinforce social interactions. Eventually, it could be said that interactions in real-world social networks can be the context where social capital can be created in local communities.

This research was carried out on the basis of urban Studies' theories such as urbanization and citizenship ethics and it also aimed to evaluate the factors that affect citizenship ethics. The required data was collected using questionnaires. The research population of all the residents of Tehran's 22 districts of which, using Cochran's formula, a sample of 470 people was selected via a multi-Stage cluster sampling technique. Descriptive results showed that the abiding by citizenship ethics among citizens in Tehran was moderate to high (49 percent). The results of inferential tests indicated that variables such as the perception of a sense of citizenship (0.366), the perception of citizenship responsibilities (0.154), perception of the importance of urbanization (0.328), the notion of conformity with other citizens (0.468), perception of surveillance through collective consciousness (0.280), and perception of their usefulness (0.460) were significantly related to abiding by citizenship ethics. In fact, these variables playa role in explaining the moral socialization of citizenship in order to comply with it in all areas of urban spaces.

The project of citizenship research that includes principles, objectives, planned and predetermined Strategies and is a part of the comprehensive plan for citizen- ship has a history of several years in Isfahan. This Study which aims to investigate the rate of penetration of Citizenship Culture Committee advertisements in Isfahan was done using the limited effects paradigm. A sample of2000 residents was selected of the population of all the citizens of Isfahan who aged 'between 15 and 65 using two-Stage cluster sampling. Taking background variables, and socio-economic characteristics of the residents into consideration, the findings of the Study revealed that: (1) the penetration index of the advertisements (education for citizenship) of the target population was more than 90%; (2) the background variables and socio-economic characteristics of the citizens, but not their gender, had a significant relationship with the advertisement penetration index among the citizens; (3) a comparison among the penetration indices of the advertisements indicated that the advertisements behind the traffic signs and SMS messages had the most and the least penetration, respectively, among the citizens.