Although living in a village might be very pleasant and dreamy at first glance, it is hard and harsh because of many factors such as poverty, unemployment, drought, global warming, and low water and agricultural productivity. Despite such difficult conditions and low quality of rural life, a significant number of people remain in villages and do not migrate. This study aimed to investigate the factors affecting survival, sustainability and staying of people in the villages to answer this question: Why do the rural people still remain in their villages? The statistical population included the rural households living in Bayg sub-district of Torbat Heydariyeh County, Razavi Khorasan province of Iran. Using Cochran's formula, 188 households were systematically randomly selected and surveyed via stratified sampling method by a questionnaire. The studied variables included social cohesion, social trust, social participation, and natural, cultural, welfare and economic attractions as well as individual characteristics. The study results showed that a combination of four economic, cultural, natural and individual factors affected sustainable rurality, respectively; and among these factors, lack of economic strength had the greatest impact on the persistence and non-migration of the rural people. However, the fragile social-environmental conditions could change the rural people’ s decisions if we failed to engage in capacity building and social empowerment and facilitation by participation of the rural people themselves.

The resident life sustainability is very threatened despite the sole proprietorship and high potential of the natural resources of Seyyed Ali Watershed in the Razavi district of Mashhad County, Khorasan_Razavi Province, Iran, and also due to the deprivation and severe poverty. The research applied at 2019 and aimed to investigate different aspects of sustainable rurality as well as to analyze the natural benefits to achieve relative independence in the livelihood. The statistical population was all individuals above 18, living in the watershed. The required data and information were collected through three methods, including field survey, in-depth interviews with residents as well as completing forms and researcher-made questionnaires. The results indicate that the residents of the basin are a family community. The village lacks almost all infrastructure facilities. Based on the results, the variables of natural attraction, fate, social cohesion, and social participation were the main factors affecting sustainable rurality. Poor health, low income, poor nutrition, low literacy, and the young population were the causes of underdevelopment. Surveys showed that the watershed has a high potential for investment. Besides, the potential for alternative livelihoods is high that can contribute to the livelihood and socio-biological life of the region. However, watershed residents must interact with institutions, particularly entrepreneurship and rural development.

Many studies have focused on the socio-economic issues of villagers and the causes of their migration. But in most of these studies, the impact of watershed conditions, environmental aspects, and natural factors has been less investigated. This article seeks to examine natural factors along with social, cultural, economic, political, and welfare components to prioritize their impacts on rurality and rural settlement or evasion. The study area was villages of Ghoshkhaneh watershed of Shirvan County, Iran. Sample households were selected and surveyed based on the Cochran formula and through Multistage and Systematic Random Samplings. According to the results, natural, social, economic, and welfare components have significant relationships with rurality. The high impact of natural factors highlights the importance of natural resources on the sustainability of rural communities. According to natural factors, however, a need to rethink or prepare region-based natural resource plans, emphasis on green entrepreneurship approaches the creation of ecological businesses and applying future researches promises to move towards bio-sustainability, especially in rural communities.

Several studies in recent years have a consensus that global development on the agricultural economy and multifunctional activities on gender relations in rural areas needs to have a balance. With this image in mind, some studies still do believe that rural women represent the identity of its own tradition as well as of the local communities. In fact, we are dealing with multiple gender identities based on diverse environment in rural areas. The empirical study on women reflects different identities and complex aspects related to it in 30 rural settlements in Shirvan County. Qualitative study based on extensive measures in the area was on the agenda: Understanding the diverse social events for extracting global and national dialogue, exchange of information with 90 local women through semi-structured interviews and the principles contained in Q methodology for the extraction of local discourse and the continuing involvement of the situation and natural entities in the women’s identity changes. The findings reveal different status of Ghooshkhaneh women in patriarchal discourse as the first factor and family farms discourse as second factor, Something that despite agricultural economy global developments and multifunctionality, An expression of former continuing the tradition of gender relations in the minds of people. Women work also associated more whit family internal mechanisms until the outside trends. While, natural and local factors has not been influence also in forcing Ghooshkhaneh women.

Introduction: Spatial planning concepts have become prominent in discussions and strategies that focus on regional and rural development. At the heart of this policy framework is an understanding that competition between regions is one of the primary driving forces influencing social and economic development and hence cohesion. It is also understood that some regions have greater advantages in terms of their location and resources than others. Recognition of the fact that resources and conditions for social and economic development vary spatially, gave rise to the concept of territorial cohesion. Rural point is domain in Iran. Although the term rural is frequently used, it is rarely defined. This issue is compounded by the choice of spatial units that form the basis for analysis. The literature on the topic of rural development is populated by uncritical use of terms such as rural regions, rural areas and rurality ….

Urban life, in contrast with rural living, is said to be a more advanced form of living, and great civilizations have been formed in and around the cities. Mawlana Jalāl al-Din Rūmi (1207-1273), Persian poet and mystic, was born in Balkh, once one of the major cities of the ancient world. He visited the most famous cities of his time, like Bagdad, Aleppo and Damascus and was educated in these cities. In his Works, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, Masnavi Manavi and Fihi Ma Fihi, Mawlana refers to urbanity and rurality and presents a portrayal of the city and the village dwellers. This article tries to study the concepts of urbanity and rurality in Mawlānā Jalāl al-Din Rūmi's thinking and the characteristic traits of the city-dwellers and the villagers.

Introduction: Asking questions about the nature of a rural area, attempting to identify its traits, and construing the rurality realm are some of the discussions in rural studies. The concept of rurality has remained ambiguous and concentrating on its different magnitudes and grades is necessary. In scientific discussions, different definitions and categorization methods have been proposed for measuring rurality differences. The population density, population decrease and increase rates, size of habitat, structure of local economy, accessibility, and landscape are some of the studied parameters in this area. The most operational definition, which is used in quantitative studies, is based on spatial and demographic theories as they present a simple definition for geographic categorization. Most of rural areas have undergone population growth regarding their continuous developments. It seems that there is a population stability in some of these areas even if they have not got an enhancement. This article aimed to structurally review and analyze temporal and spatial evolutions of demographic rurality in Isfahan Province. Materials & Methods: Isfahan Province as the study area has got 88 and 12% of urban and rural populations according to the census of 2016. The village was the unit of analysis in this research. The statistical community included all villages with more than 4 households (totally 768 villages) based on the databases of two latest housing and population censuses conducted in 2006 and 2016. Considering the mentioned censuses and taking several correction steps, the research data and variables included the number of households, male and female populations (6 years, over 6 years, 10 years, over 10 years, under 14 years, 14-64 years, and over 65 years), total population, number of literate persons, and number of employees. The processed indicators for modeling and analyzing demographic rurality and its evolutions in the studied time sections could be mentioned as family size, sex ratio, youth rate, aging rate, aging ratio, dependency ratio, dependency burden, literacy rate, employment rate, and population growth rate. These indicators were operationalized and calculated cross-sectionally at the beginning and end of the period and longitudinally for evolutions over the period. Discussion of Results & Conclusions: After studying nearly 800 villages during the decade, a slight decrease in family size was observed. The sex ratio had averagely increased by 17/3 people. There was a slight decline of the youth (25/0) in the villages. However, there was an extreme range from decreasing by 32 to increasing by 36 in this regard. The aged population had also increased slightly by 76%. Also, the indicator of aging ratio almost showed a similar changing procedure. The dependency ratio had nearly remained unchanged. There was only 22 units of increase in the dependency burden, ranging from 58 to 10. The average literacy rate had undergone an overall increase of 28. 3%, but there was a vast variation after considering the villages separately. The employment rate had decreased 86. 1% in return. There was not a considerable change in the total population of the villages. It had only decreased to 192 people, which showed a growth rate of 0. 004 with the variation of 21 to 6/20% among the villages. Overall, the structural components for rural population in the province had nearly remained unchanged during the studied decade. A significant structural model was found in the province based on the statistical modeling performed for analyzing demographic rurality and its evolutions with the indicators of family size, sex ratio, literacy ratio, aging ratio, dependency ratio, and youth ratio in 2006. The indicators of aging and dependency ratio were compatible with the family size, literacy rate, and youth ratio with a negative impact on demographic rurality, while aging ratio played an intense negative role in it. Spatial analysis was regionally and separately done for 3 types of villages in Isfahan Province based on the developments of population configurations in the rural mountainous, plain, and desert areas. The positive changes in the rates of population growth, household dimension, and literacy and negative changes in the aging rate were observed to be similar in all the studied areas. There was more similarity in the structural changes of rural population in the plain and desert areas, which were weakened by changes in the dependency ratio and strengthened by changes of the sex ratio, thus remaining in equilibrium. In return, the negative changes of employment rate and more appropriate position of the young population within the age composition had caused more weakening and strengthening in the structural changes of rural population in the mountainous areas, respectively.