URBAN STUDIES
Year:2014 | Volume:3 | Issue:9|Papers Count:7

Given the increase in the expectations of decision-making and executive institutions, and individual actors of the security forces, the assurance of security and urban sustainability have necessitated the coordination of the functions of this institution with the security needs of the society. Undoubtedly, the large state of Kerman is no exception to this rule. The present article, first presents a conceptual framework for the sociology of security, and then investigates the constructs of existential security, welfare security, and meaning-giving security among a 400 residents of Kerman who were selected through a multi-stage cluster sampling technique. The results showed that security needs of the three areas of the core, semi-periphery, and periphery are different. Although existential security is the top priority of all residents in all three areas, nonetheless, its components rank higher in periphery areas. Welfare and meaning-giving security rank higher in core and semi-periphery areas.

The aim of this research is to study of influence of different social factors on social solidarity among the residents of the city of Yazd. Social solidarity means public agreement on social rules and principles that every society needs for its endurance and stability. The technique for gathering data was questionnaire which had sufficient validity and reliability and the sample consisted of 316 Yazd residents that were selected through cluster sampling method.The results showed that there was a meaningful relationship between social solidarity and age, ownership of house, and income. But there was no meaningful relationship between ethnicity, education, and gender with social solidarity. Religiosity also had a meaningful relationship with social solidarity but the usage of the mass media had no meaningful relationship with it. According to the results of analysis of variance, the variables social participation, income and marital status explained 22.7 percent of the variance ofthe dependent variable.

Municipal services planning cannot be successful unless it takes into account the issues of social justice based on all residents' having access to city services. In fact, injustice is a type of inequality which is not generally beneficial. The research draws on Western et al.'s viewpoint that, social justice, conceptually and in terms of empirical research, concentrates on "procedural" and "distributive" Justice. This descriptive-explanatory research is performed using the survey method. It aims to study the association of residents' access level to municipal services with their sense of social justice. The research population included all Kermani residents 18-year-old and above, of which a statistical sample of 384 members was selected using Cochran's formula and a multi-level clustering sampling method. This research collected the data using a questionnaire. The results indicated that there was a significant negative association between education and sense of social justice. In fact, the more educated the people, the less their sense social justice (r= 0.13, sig= 0.02). There was also a significant relationship between social and distributive justice indices, and no significant relationship existed between social and procedural justice. Gender and age also had no significant relationship with various dimensions of social justice. A significant relationship of 0.001 existed between social justice and degree of accessibility to urban services. Overall, the regression analysis results indicated that the access level to municipal services explains 35% of the variation of sense of social justice.

Women as half of the population of slum dweller usually face more social and economic deprivations and so far no studies have been done concerning their attitudes and social behaviors. Therefore this article focuses on such a population in Sa'adi township of Shiraz. Research population consisted of all the women residents of this shanty town of which 348 individuals were selected through cluster sampling. Descriptive findings showed that women's social participation was at the middle range and their sense of belongingness to the city of Shiraz was relatively high. These women are mostly fatalistic and the culture of poverty is relatively prevalent among them, relations with neighbors are weak. Inferential findings showed that cultural beliefs were significantly related to social participation and that length of residence in the slum was significantly related to fertility. The results of ANOVA test indicated that education was related to having a sense that a high level of social problems exists. Regression analysis showed that of the 8 variables (age, income, age of marriage, length of marriage, length of residence in the city, number of dead infants, desired number of children, and fatalism) that were entered into the equation, length of marriage explained 59 percent of the variance of the dependent variable. Length of marriage and fatalism together explained 62 percent of the variance of the dependent variable.

This article aims to explore the amount of social capital among the dwellers of the slums of the city of Eilam. A combination of the ideas of Giddens, Bourdieu, Coleman, and Putnam was used as the theoretical framework. This is a survey method which used a questionnaire to collect needed information. Research population consisted of all slum dwellers. of the city of Eilam of which 285 individuals were selected using a multi-stage cluster sampling technique. The research instrument had face validity and its reliability coefficient was. Research results showed that of the components of social capital, social participation had the greatest mean (M=33.62) and social relations had the lowest mean (M=18.39). There was no significant difference between the social capital of men and women and. that of the employed and unemployed. There was, however, a significant difference between the social capital of people based on marital status, educational level, type of housing, and ethnicity. It could be concluded that the ideas of Putnam, and Coleman are useful in explaining social capital.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of some of the factors associated with satisfaction of citizens in their residential neighborhood. This study was a survey and a cross-sectional study that was carried out in various localities of a city in East Azarbaijan province. A research tool was questionnaire and the sample consisted of 382 residents over 18 years of age. The independent variables included local community participation, community relations, social security and access to local facilities, and the dependent variable was level of satisfaction with residential neighborhood. The result of multiple regression analysis showed that all of these factors can explain 34 percent of the variation of level of satisfaction. Among the independent variables, social bonds have the most positive effects on satisfaction with residential neighborhood. Also, length of stay in a place can increase residents' social bonds, sense of security through social participation and therefore can indirectly affect the residents' level of satisfaction.

To have a sense of security is a fundamental right of the people and it is also a prerequisite for the welfare and health of the members of the society. In that regard, this article aims to study women's sense of security in two districts of the city of Esfahan. To measure the sense of security, the three dimensions of social, structural, and physical safety were used. The results showed that sense of security is different among the women in the two districts, that is, women is district 5 have a higher level of sense of security than women in district 13. It was also found that the dimensions of social and structural had a direct effect on sense of security. Furthermore, in both districts, people considered the presence of the police as essential in bringing about the sense of security. The results of analysis of variance showed that the three mentioned dimensions could explain about 29.6 percent of the variance of the dependent variable, namely the sense of security.