Cultural function of urban management in promotion of citizenship participation culture for administrating local affairs (case study: Tehran's municipality of district 4)

Citizenship participation is the main component in achieving the goals of sustainable development and good urban governance. So, the urban management of Tehran has applied two main approaches at the top of its programs; neighborhood orientation and transforming municipality from the service-only organization to the service – social institution. In this study, entitled “Cultural function of urban management in promotion of citizenship participation in administrating local affairs”, the effect of cultural activities of Tehran municipality on increasing citizenship participation was investigated. Conceptual and analytical model of this study is based on “Ajzen & Fishbien’s reasoned action model”. This research is an applied one and the method used in it is survey-descriptive. To collect data researcher-made questionnaire was used and after examining its validity and reliability, 385 questionnaires, according to infinite population sampling, were distributed and collected among participants who were working in four “Settlement Houses” of Tehran municipality district 4.Data analysis was done by SPSS software. The results indicate that from the point of view of the citizens, who are provider and receiver of services of the mentioned settlement houses,the cultural activities of urban management in Tehran has a positive effect on enhancing “participation attitude”, “normalizing the participation”, “trust on municipality” and “creating an appropriate communication way”. Among the three indicators of the first hypothesis; “individual’s image of participation consequences”, “individual’s information about participation” and “an assessment of the consequences of participation” have had the highest effect on the variable “participation orientation”, respectively. The indicators of second hypothesis in order of influence on the variable “normalize the participation” are; “individual’s motivation to fulfill the expectations of others”, “individual’s image of judging others about participation” and “individual ‘s partnership records”. The indicators of third hypothesis in order of influence on the variable “trust on municipality” are; “changing negative mentality about municipality” and “satisfaction with the municipality”. The indicators of the fourth hypothesis in order of influence on the variable “establish the appropriate communication’s way” are; “sustainability”, “being bilateral”, “being institutional and pervasiveness.