فصلنامه مطالعات جامعه شناختی شهری
پیاپی 11 (تابستان 1393)

The main purpose of the current research is the sociological study of social happiness in Ardabil city based on social quality theory. The dependent variable is social happiness, and the independent one is social quality. The concept of social quality consists of the ability of citizens in participating in social and economic life, under condition in which their welfare and personal potential will be boosted. Social quality consists of four areas: socioeconomic security, social Cohesion, social inclusion, and social empowerment. These areas are considered as a four dimension structure being shaped due to relations of global and biographical processes in one hand, and, systems, institutions and societies, in the other hand. In this research, the model of social quality is based on the hypothesis that personal happiness is influenced by the four aforementioned components. Research population included all citizens above 15 years of age in Ardabil. According to2011 census, 418262 persons were above 15. As a whole 399 people were selected as the samples. A questionnaire consisting 32 items was organized based on age and gender, and through using multi-process sampling. According to the results, there is a significant relationship between independent variables of socioeconomic security and empowerment with the dependent variable of social happiness. Also, a significant relationship existed between social quality and social happiness. This clarifies that, social quality both as a theory and also an approach to determine social happiness, was confirmed by the results.

The city is the seat of modern values and institutions. Demand to the acquisition, processing, and utilization of information is a modern value and the Internet is a modern institution. Historical data show that the city is the place of modern institutions. The ideas of the electronic city, electronic municipality, electronic economy and so forth are an indication of society’s need to use Internet-based information. The Internet has affected city life considerably and has reduced some urban problems and has made city life dependent on the Internet so much so that under circumstances, urban life will become seriously disrupted without it. So, the aim of this article is to study the extent of, and factors affecting, residents’ internet utilization in the city of Yazd. The research population consisted of all Yazdi residents between the ages 17-54 whose number in the year of 2006 was 267870, of which, based on Cochran’s formula, 384 individuals were selected using a cluster sampling technique. Data gathering tool was a questionnaire that had content validity and its reliability coefficient was above the 0.7 threshold. The results showed that Yazdi residents’ level of Internet usage was rather low and that it was significantly related to level of education, socio-economic status, perceptions about information technology and communication, satisfaction with information technology and communication, and level of need of information technology and communication. There was no relationship between age and gender and Internet usage. The results of stepwise regression analysis showed that the variables level of education and perceptions about information technology and communication, together could explain about 21.8 percent of the dependent variable, namely Internet usage.

Apartment living, like many other aspects of urbanism, has been adopted from western cultures. The spread and expansion of this phenomenon may have many positive and negative consequences. Since the number of women who work outside of home is much fewer than men, and they spend more time in home and apartment, experience of living in such environments develops a specific attitude about apartment living for them. Attitudes and tendencies can have impact on behavior, mental and psychological health, social relationship, family stability and other life aspects, thus it is necessary to investigate Attitude toward apartment living in different aspects. This study has been done to evaluate Yazdi women’s Attitude toward apartment living. It is a cross-sectional study in terms of time and a survey in terms of method. The technique used in this study was questionnaire. research population consisted of all married women in Yazd, of who through cluster sampling method 384 women living in apartments and villa houses were selected as the sample. Data was analyzed by SPSS software. Findings indicate that generally women’s Attitude regarding apartment living is negative (37/29) and lower than average level. Meanwhile, Attitudes of women living in apartments (42/65%) were more positive compared to those living in villa houses (31/39%). The result indicate that there has been a statistically significant difference between women’s place of birth (native and nonnative) and the Attitude regarding apartment living. Nonetheless, there exists no statistically significant difference between women’s employment and their Attitude regarding apartment living. Moreover, the results of Pearson Correlation Coefficient has revealed that there is a statistically reverse significant correlation between the age and family size and Attitude regarding apartment living. So with regard to the above point, there is no significant correlation between socio-economic statuses.

Among the relationships that a person has with others (e.g. relationships with family, friends, colleagues and etc.), relations with neighbors is very important. Neighborhood social capital is created in neighborhood relations that include objective and subjective dimensions. This kind of social capital has important incomes in social life. One of the most prominent incomes is increasing of community safety (security). The other is social control. Lack of this sort of social capital creates social problems in both the community and the society. Therefore, knowledge of neighborhood social capital can help us in solving some of the problems of urban areas. The research population consisted of all the residents the city of Aran and Bidgol in Isfahan province, of which 384 people were selected as the sample. Data were collecting through a questionnaire and were analyzed via SPSS and using statistical methods like frequency distribution, Pearson correlation coefficient, linear regression, analysis path and etc. Results of research indicate that there are correlations between neighborhood social capital with community safety, social control and community identity. Also neighborhood social capital, social control and community identity as our independent variables, explain community safety (security) as our dependent variable.

Many experts believe that solutions to environmental problems depend on the behavior of citizens. In this regard, the issue of environmental citizenship has special importance, since engaging citizens in environmental problems (including hazard effects of climate change) is important. Mazandaran province is one of the important tourism and agricultural areas of Iran and in recent years its urban area's activities have been influenced by climate change. For this reason, to reduce the negative impact of climate change, increasing citizens’ commitment to the environment is necessary. The purpose in this study is the analysis of the importance of environmental citizenship and social-psychological factors related to it. The research population consisted of 320741 residents of Ghaemshahr of whom 350 individuals were select as sample by cluster sampling and survey data were collected by questioner. The questionnaire had face and content validity and Cronbach's alpha for reliability was above 60 percent. The findings showed that citizenship commitment towards environment and tackling with one of environmental crises hence climate change is moderate to high (M= 3.62). Level of citizens’ commitment toward tackling with negative and harmful consequences of climate change varies according to age and education. In other word, with an increase in age, environmental citizenship also increases but with an increase in education, commitment to environmental citizenship decreases. Citizens’ “place attachment” also was very high (4.25 of 5) and also mean of effect of local messages framework of climate change was 4.21, suggesting that the level of this factor’s effect was high. Finally, the results of regression analysis also showed that place attachment to local messages frameworks of climate change has the greatest effect on the development of environmental citizenship.

One of the main concepts that have attracted the attention of sociologists and especially city planners is the measurement of the concept of urban participation. The goal of this study is to reevaluate the construct of urban participation, in order to offer a validated and standard device to the researchers of social sciences. In order to achieve this goal, the research population consisted of all the citizens of the city of Kermanshah of which 400 individuals were selected as the sample via cluster and random sampling. The results of factor analysis showed that the construct of urban participation consisted of four item: economic, social, political, and cultural). The comparative and parsimonious indices showed that CFI or comparative fit index was 0.89, and the comparative parsimonious fit index or PCFI factor was 0.726. Besides the root mean squared error of approximation or RMSEA was 0.069, and normed chi-square or CMIN/Df was 2.91 which altogether showed an improvement of the model. As whole, all gathered data can support the model, and the results also support the theoretical framework. Finally, it can be concluded that the questionnaire of urban participation includes three items (knowledge of participation, tendency to participation and rate of participation) which are useful in social, cultural programs.

Most parts of the big cities in Iran are dilapidated and cannot afford their residents with suitable facilities. As a result, the middle and upper classes move to newly-built parts and districts with modern texture and planning. The old parts have become a kind of heaven for crimes due to buildings with no owners, lack of proper lighting, and lack of modern technologies and facilities like closed-circuit cameras and availability of quiet corners. In this study using crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) theory, two parts of the modern and old sections in Hamadan have been analyzed. The main purpose of this study is to analyze the differences between social abnormalities in modern and traditional parts of Hamadan city and the role of environmental planning in it between 1391 to 1392. This research is a survey one that uses the causal analytical method. The research population consisted of all the residents of the city of Hamadan that was divided into two parts: modern and traditional. The residents of the modern subgroup live in four neighborhoods: professors` district, specialists` district, Saeidiye district and Pardis district and the traditional parts were limited to Joulan, Emamazadeh Yahya, Babataher street, Ekbatan and Shohada street. This population comprised 418000 people of which 75000 resided in modern districts and 343000 in traditional parts. Sample size was estimated to be 384 using Cochran formula. Samples were selected by quota and simple random sampling. The data were gathered by applying two researcher-made questionnaires and were analyzed by SPSS using MANOVA. Face and content validity as well as factor analysis and reliability estimates was assessed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient which was greater than 0.70 in all dimensions. The results according to CPTED theory indicated that there is a relationship between abnormalities in old and modern parts of Hamadan and environmental planning is effective in this regard in a way that planning the city environment in general (F=7.176, P=0.008) and its five dimensions of scoping (domain-oriented) (F=4.121, P=0.017), Monitoring (surveillance) (F=4.51, P=0.012), Access Control (input) (F=4.795, P=0.009), Image and space storing (F=10.323, P=0.001), Making it hard to commit crimes (F=4.388, P=0.013), support activities (supporting) (F=3.287, P=0.038) in both modern and traditional parts affect crime and deviant behaviors differently.