JOURNAL OF URBAN ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
Year:2015 | Volume:3 | Issue:12|Papers Count:8

Empowerment is a process in which an individual will be aware of his needs, internal demands, capabilities, and acquire necessary abilities aiming to achieve requests. Native notion of socio-economic empowerment, effective factors on growth and its barriers were studied by two qualitative (grounded theory) and quantitative (correlation analysis) in this research. Depth interview techniques, focus group discussions, participatory and direct observation were used for qualitative data collection, Scott and GYF questionnaire was used for 111 samples for quantitative data collection in order to examine the obstacles of women’s empowerment based on three factors: attitude and the amount of experience, training, and women’s socio-economic status (employment) in the form of 33 items. The qualitative results show that employment, balancing income and expenses, savings and entrepreneurship have influential and determining role in continuation and sustainability of people’s economic empowerment. The overall results of qualitative research show that some relatives who live together, family-orientation, social capital, cooperation, social correlation, and supporting each other are some effective factors on empowerment growth. Also, the results of quantitative research indicate that two factors: training and employment are the most important effective factors on vulnerable women’s empowerment in empowerment staff of Tehran Municipality.

This research investigates the pathology of training courses aiming to present qualitative development necessities for urban economy and financial experts in Tehran Municipality. The research method is mixed exploratory one. 13 financial and urban economy experts and the members of management and training center of Tehran Municipality were selected by purposive sampling and snowball methods in the qualitative section. Data collection tool was in semi-structured interview form. The result of qualitative section has identified the existing damages in training courses of financial and urban economy experts in Tehran Municipality in seven aspects of educational need assessment, educational goals, educational content, educators, organizing education, assessment system, and motivational mechanisms. A research-made questionnaire including 40 items in seven aspects which was detected was used for data collection in the quantitative section. For determining the validity and reliability of the questionnaire face validity and Cronbach’s alpha were used respectively that the amount was equal to 0.84. The population was all of the financial and urban economy experts, 227 people, in Tehran Municipality. 143 people of them were selected by using Cochran sampling formula with simple random sampling method. Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used in order to analyze the data. Training requirements for quality development and the degree of their importance were studied. Finally, some strategies were suggested for qualitative development of training in need assessment, design, implementation, and assessment of training courses steps.

The production of gold ornaments and artifacts is a local and national industry. Isfahan is one of the major metropolises which it has the first rank of gold industry, jewelry and silver in Iran. Obtained value added in this industry is not in a good position than other industries in Isfahan, however. Thus, more attention to this valuable industry will result in more development and growth and economic progress in Isfahan as well. Hence, the researcher tried to present an integrated framework in order to develop appropriate strategies in this metropolis which will help the growth and survival of the industry. For presenting a comprehensive framework strategy, SWOT has been used for determining the factors in this study. Major factors have been selected by using fuzzy linguistic variables and multi criteria decision making method. Using these factors, necessary conditions for enhancing value added obtained from this industry may be enhanced and more share of global markets will be gained.

Mutual connection between the structure of cities and economic factors often leads to economic feedbacks which caused by structural intervention. This intervention usually affects decisions in urban land use through reducing or increasing economic costs or benefits of urban activities. The purpose of this study is prediction and identification the changes in housing prices until completion of Majd project. Grey Theory was used to predict the future price of real estates. Data were collected by documentry survey method during 2009 to 2013. The results showed that the prediction of economic and structural developments in studied area may result in the changes of real estate nominal prices. The results of the Grey Theory represented that current increasing trend in real estate prices will continue in future in a way that until to the project completion time, the nominal prices of real estate in that area would increase in comparison to 2013. Eventually, some recommendations such as reforming local prices offered to exploit the economic benefits of increased prices of real estate.

Today, most people expect social demands from organizations. They move toward social expectations in line with accountability. Many social experts have emphasized on the importance of learning in organizations. The aim of this research is studying the impact of organizational learning on economic and social accountability of Tehran Municipality. Case study is Tehran Municipality districts 1, 6, 8, 19, and 22 and 255 high-ranked and average managers are the sample of population. The reliability of data analysis tool was assessed by Cronbach’s alpha and estimated 0.98. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, Pearson correlation coefficient, sample T test, T statistics in SPSS and LISREL were used for data collection. Confirmatory Factor analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were used for studying construct validity of the questionnaire and testing the hypothesis and model fitting concept respectively. According to the obtained results, there is a positive and significant relationship between organizational learning and social accountability. Multiple coefficient of determination (R2) shows that the variable of organizational learning could predict 0.69 percent of social accountability (responsibility).

Heterogeneity of distribution system of urban services is one of the most important consequences of rapid growth of urbanization and physical development of cities in the country in the past decades. It has paved the way for social injustice and having urban services land uses in the regions and neighborhoods of a city. This research has been developed in order to measure access level of residents in urban areas of Zahedan for required facilities and services. Initially, per capita of status quo of each individual from service uses of city’s status quo was extracted by using data and information of Zahedan comprehensive urban plan and then the extent and distribution of land uses in five districts of Zahedan were examined by utilizing Williamson and entropy models. Finally, each district was evaluated and ranked in terms of having facilities and services. The results of Williamson and entropy models show unbalanced distribution and lack of services in district 4 due to large and increasing population. Balanced distribution of services is seen in district 5 and studying results of having urban services and facilities due to TOPSIS model shows that there is a big difference among urban areas in terms of accessibility and urban services so that the highest amount of TOPSIS for district 5 is 0.894 and the lowest amounts are 0.058 and 0.178 for districts 2 and 4 respectively.

One of the criteria of social justice and urban sustainable development is considering balanced distribution of infrastructures and urban facilities; therefore, the distribution of the services should be in such a way that not only it creates spatial justice in the areas, but it also prepare the ground for urban development. This research has descriptive-analytical approach and tries to recognize and rank the rate of existing services in 13 neighborhoods of Noorabad Mamsani City in Fars Province using education, health, and culture, sport, office, green space, and facility indexes. For this purpose, initially the prosperity of services in these areas was examined by using models of the coefficient of variation and statistical techniques and then, the rate of prosperity of urban services in these neighborhoods was evaluated and analyzed by using multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) model based on TOPSIS approach. The results show that there are significant discrepancies regarding the rate of prosperity of services among 13 neighborhoods of Noorabad so that central neighborhoods of the city i.e. neighborhoods 1 and 2 in district 2, are prosperous and nomadic areas are prosper less. Eventually, there is imbalance and inequality among different areas in this city regarding concentration of population and access in terms of spatial distribution of services.

Urban regeneration is a comprehensive plan preparing the ground for sustainable improvement in economic, physical, social, and environmental condition in a city. Locating urban regeneration projects is one of the most important steps of the plan. The result of the negligence is failure in the implementation of projects or the imposition of financial, social, and cultural damages to cities. The current study intends to verify the hypothesis that following complex, multi-dimensions, and particularly presented models in this paper are considerably more effective on locating projects through presenting an exact locating model and measuring its accuracy in the case study. 13 criteria and 32 sub-criteria of economic, social, physical, environmental, and administrative information have been simultaneously used in locating process in the proposed model. Compatibility Coefficient for the importance of options in AHP model has been calculated and verified by utilizing GIS instrument. Data were collected from the case study by field method to locate the projects. The results show that there is a direct and significant relation between the place of projects and socio-economic variables in the environment.