Evaluating the role of public participation in urban development (case study of Ardabil Region 4)

Dissertation for Master Degree (M.A)

Department of Geography and Urban Planning

The present research examines the role of public participation in the development of Ardabil city. After reviewing the theoretical literature and the research conducted in relation to the topic, the research hypotheses were formulated as follows.

There is a significant relationship between public participation and the development of urban services.

There is a significant relationship between public participation and urban development.

There is a significant relationship between public participation and cultural and social development. There are 20,259 households in the four cities of Ardabil, and 320 people were selected as the sample size using Cochran's sampling formula.

The method of random sampling is simple and the data collection tool is a questionnaire. SPSS software and Pearson's correlation coefficient test were used in data analysis. The results show that people's participation has a direct relationship with urban development. In other words, the greater the participation of citizens, the more likely the realization of urban development will be. The obtained results show that at the 95% confidence level, it can be said that there is a relationship between public participation and urban development. In addition, research findings show that people's participation has a positive relationship with various aspects of urban development. The participation of citizens in the administration of city affairs is effective in the development of urban development, development of urban services, environmental development and cultural and social development.

Key words:

Urban development - public participation - development of urban development - development of urban services - environmental development - cultural and social development.

- Statement of the problem:

The city is a complex and dynamic phenomenon that is constant over time. It undergoes physical, social, economic and even political and cultural changes. Such extensive developments are affected by the extensive growth of the urban population; Since after the Second World War, one of the most important problems in developing countries has been rapid and uneven urbanization. The consequence of such an explosive growth of the urban population has led to the emergence of a widespread epidemic of urban poverty. In many cases, the emergence of such phenomena has been the result of widespread rural migration or even small and medium-sized cities to big cities. Therefore, as a result of such untimely growth, the city administration has faced a problem due to the lack of resources and time needed to respond to the growing needs of citizens, which can only be solved within the framework of new solutions. You can search. The design of new concepts such as empowerment, participation, good urban governance, sustainable development, competitiveness of cities, strategic planning, neighborhood-oriented planning, etc., shows a new wave in thinking. It is urban planning. In the meantime, the process of urban development strategy of participation in groups, associations, institutions and social programs has been assumed as one of the important indicators of development.

In fact, the principle of participation in development planning has gained a greater place with the evolution and modification of the attitude towards the concept of development. In other words, the emphasis on the principle of participation in planning is due to the fact that development requires motivation and learning above all, and it is manifested in the continuous improvement and adequacy of internal abilities. Accordingly, development planning will be seriously dependent on democracy in goals and methods. National programs are the joint responsibility of organizations and institutions that influence each other, and on the other hand, the more the participation of ordinary people and interest groups such as trade unions or political parties increases in the preparation and implementation of programs, the more meaningful their planning is. Based on this, the development planning system should be designed in such a way that it has a large amount of participation at all levels. The intended participation is not only related to the program design period, but includes all stages of studies, goal setting, policy making, evaluation, provision of resources, implementation, monitoring and evaluation (Iran Research Center, 2013: 29). defines (Ghafari, 2010: 37).Based on this definition, it is of great importance to empower the deprived and isolated groups for their entry into the process of participation in decision-making and monitoring of their own affairs. With a development approach, Majid Rahmana considers the entry of people into the field of decision-making and control as requiring attention to the presuppositions of "popular participation", including: overcoming the obstacles in the path of people's participation in development, preferring the participation strategy over other development strategies, and the possibility of organizing people in order to achieve their goals (Rahnama, 2011: 121-122).

Due to the change in the concept of development and its basic strategies in the last half century, if there is a change in the focus If development is necessary, it is clear that the perspective of experts and thinkers should be shifted from the limited economic perspective and emphasis on capital and efficiency to determine how these changes can be effective in thoughts. The flow of participation, whose axis is the sense of belonging and free and wide conversation, can play an effective role in this way. Of course, the concept of participation is not limited to this and extends to government decisions at national levels and labor and capital markets. The important point in this type of understanding of the concept of participation and its connection with development is that in all-round development, participation is not only limited to voting, but beyond that, participation should provide conditions for free dialogue and active participation in social activities for the general public, on the other hand, participation requires a situation where people can influence decisions that affect their fate.  Participation in general increases the efficiency of development programs and raises the quality of decisions and encourages governments to organize decentralized structures with more power. The perspective of people's active participation tries to improve the process of planning and effective implementation of acceptable changes and reduce their possible risks and threats. If the flow of participation is given favorable attention, it will make the adopted plans and policies more compatible with the social conditions, thereby creating a suitable platform for creating cultural and psychological spaces for the implementation of various cultural, social and economic policies.

According to what has been said, this research seeks to investigate the role of popular participation in the development of Ardabil city in order to identify and introduce ways to better use the element of citizen participation in the creation and development of the city. According to the above topics, the basic concern of this research is to answer this question, what is the role of public participation in the development of the four cities of Ardabil? What effect does public participation have on cultural and social development?

What effect does public participation have on environmental development?

1-3- Research hypotheses:

There is a significant relationship between public participation and the development of urban services

There is a significant relationship between public participation and urban development

There is a significant relationship between public participation and cultural and social development There is.

There is a significant relationship between public participation and environmental development.

1-5- Type of research method:

Special and distinct meanings are inferred from the term research method in scientific texts, one of the comprehensive definitions is as follows:

Research method is a set of valid (reliable) and systematic rules, tools, and ways to investigate facts, discover unknowns, and achieve solutions to problems.  (Khaki, 1382: 122)

With any research, it is a systematic and methodical effort to find an answer to a question or a solution to a problem. Based on this, the research conducted can be classified based on the purpose of the research. This research is based on the purpose of applied research.

Another classification for the conducted research is according to the research method, and the current research is conducted using the correlation research method. In correlation research, the main goal is to determine whether there is a relationship between two or more variables and if this relationship exists, what is its size and extent.