Village and Development
Year:2008 | Volume:11 | Issue:2|Papers Count:13

Different levels of households' welfare have produced many socio-economic consequences. Various factors underlie the differences in welfare among households. One of these factors is the place of residence. In order to compare the welfare between rural and urban areas, we used the data from the 2001 socio economic census. These variables were studied to examine the household welfare: nutrition, expenditure, housing, housing facilities, ownership of durable goods, and insurance situation. The results indicated that urban households have a much better situation than rural households concerning all welfare indicators. From all the variables that affect household welfare the most important ones include: low financial situation, norms prevalent in rural households such as the importance of present time with respect to future time, livelihood strategies, and type of occupation. Considering the rural-urban gap, some recommendations were made to improve the welfare of rural households

The main purpose of this study is to survey the important factors that contribute to the success of forest cooperatives in the west of Mazandaran province. The statistical population consisted of the woodmen cooperative members in the area under study. The research findings showed some of the important factors according to their priority that influence the success of cooperatives: the number of villages under coverage, the collaboration and assistance of the natural resource office with the natural resource cooperative, the level of members know-how, the number of cooperative's staff, people investment, and side activities such as fish farming. The results of factor analysis showed the factors that contribute to the success of forest cooperatives can be grouped into four main factors: benefiting from members contribution in cooperative activities, the level of members' performance, training and monitoring, and social connections. They can explain 70.38% of the total variance.

The purpose of this study is to understand the socio-economic and environmental impacts of tourism in the villages of Kan valley which have the tourism capability. The results indicated that tourism has a narrow economic impact which is limited to small income and employment generation while it contributes to inflation and land speculation. From the social perspective, tourism has more potentials such as raising literacy, personal hygiene, interactions with neighboring areas and reducing migration. From the environmental perspective, the visit of tourists can lead to the destruction of plant and animal diversity, rising of pollution and environmental degradation. Therefore, an appropriate planning and attempts to optimize tourist visits can improve the economic and consequently environmental-structural and social conditions of villages in the region.

Political, economic, social and technological changes have a significant impact on such organizations as Agricultural Extension. Only those organizations can perform their activities effectively and efficiently that take the changes into account and organize their structures and services accordingly. Dealing with these challenges necessitates the use of performance- and client-oriented as two effective approaches by agricultural extension organizations. The performance-oriented approach sets the objectives and priorities essential for achieving sustainable results. The client-oriented approach is a type of organizational culture that creates required behaviors for generating superior values for those who receive these services. The objective of this paper is to explain agricultural extension organizations approaches using library research method.

This study used Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), and its main emphasis was the expansion and development of eco-tourism industry in Ovan region. The paper looked at ways and method to increase women participation in the process. Considering the main target group is women their active presence in the research process and their participation in all research stages were among the points of discussion. After an exploratory investigation of local communities and their needs and problems, they provided the researchers with solutions to improve the situation of their communities and their quality of life. The study was a comparative analysis of qualitative and quantitative research methods and it also considered the characteristics of PRA. The final part of the paper was devoted to the discussion about findings obtained by PRA techniques.

Based on the experiences obtained from some developing countries, it is quite clear that short term remedial initiatives to reduce rural-urban migration cannot be very effective. There should be strategies that aim the elimination of apparent inequalities and discrimination between rural and urban areas. Therefore in this study we will examine the experiences and studies of different countries concerning the return migration as well as different definitions about return migration and its types. The statistical population consisted of 750 rural migrants covered by Imam Khomeini Relief Committee (IKRC) that settled in Pakdasht county and from which a sample size of 197 was drawn by simple random sampling method. An assessment of the most important incentives and factors that contributed to the return of rural migrants covered by 1KRC showed that economic factors more than other factors can lead to the resettlement of rural migrants.

The present paper explains social capital and its measurement in the border areas of east Iran. It describes the concept and its development and its relation with trust which is one of the important components of social capital. It studies the level of social capital and its distribution in Sistan area. The idea of the growth of urban areas is prevalent in the border areas in one hand, and in the other hand the main contributing factors that maintain and protect border areas by local communities are social capital and trust. Based on the research hypothesis there is a significant difference between the level of social capital in rural and urban areas of Sistan. If the growth of urban areas is translated into the evacuation of rural areas in which social capital is higher, it certainly is not an appropriate idea. It will also be in contradiction with geopolitical necessities.

Geographical studies in Iran have shown that spatial-locational arrangements of villages are affected by two types of factors: natural environment and ecology in the one hand, and socio-economic, political and cultural trends in the other hand. In the past, factors such as water and safety were the most prioritized factors that influenced the placement of a village and less attention were paid to natural calamities such as earthquake and land sliding. Disregard of natural hazards in the past increased the vulnerability of rural settlements. At present, policy makers believe that earthquake is more of a social issue than a natural threat. Iran stands out to be among the five most earthquake prone countries in the world. Kordestan province is located on the Sanandaj-Sirjan fault line. Studies about the conditions of rural buildings and their resilience against earthquake revealed that 98.4% of them lacked anti-earthquake facilities.