Evaluation of Effective Factors on the Happiness of Citizens in Public Spaces of Tabriz City

Individual and social happiness and well-being have been one of the most important and prominent human aspirations in all previous periods. Also, creating a mental image of an ideal society may be one of the general concerns of all philosophers and social scientists, especially first philosophers; a society that promises an end to human suffering and paves the way for paradise on earth. Veenhoven gives the most comprehensive definition of happiness; in that happiness refers to the degree to which a person judges the quality of his or her overall quality of life; in other words, happiness means how much a person loves life. Thus, happiness, although defined to a generally mental and individual feeling, its fluctuations are strongly influenced by direct and indirect external factors and cannot be imagined apart from them. According to the Global Happiness Report in 2019, Iran is ranked 118th out of 153 countries. In the present study, the aim is to investigate and explain the criteria affecting the happiness and social vitality of citizens in the public spaces of Tabriz. In order to meet this goal, it was emphasized in the theoretical foundations section that in general, happiness and urban public spaces affect each other.

The present study is a practical one in order to achieve a comprehensive analysis of the components affecting happiness in public spaces of Tabriz. The approach in this study is quantitative. To evaluate the developed components in the conceptual model, survey research and descriptive-analytical methods have been used. In this context, a large share of data is collected in the form of surveys and questionnaires. In this regard, a questionnaire of 87 questions was developed based on effective identified components on the happiness. The five selected urban spaces were examined stand on quantitative questions from the questionnaire. The results are included in SPSS19 software and to analyze and explain the components that affect the happiness of citizens, factor analysis, regression, Pearson and Enova tests have been used.

The aim of this study is to investigate and explain the effective criteria on the happiness and social vitality of citizens. In order to reach this goal, it was emphasized in the theoretical foundations section that in general, happiness and urban public spaces affect each other. Accordingly, in this paper and in the data analysis section, the suitability of the proposed model was investigated to evaluate the criteria affecting people's happiness and social vitality. Initially, based on factor analysis, 87 effective components were divided into 8 classes. After ensuring the validity of the model and recognizing the main factors affecting the level of social happiness and vitality in the selected urban public spaces with regression test and the relationship of these dimensions with each other, Pearson correlation test was performed. The research findings indicate that based on the results obtained from statistical studies, all conceptual variables of research, including dimensions of urban public space quality, physical-ecological dimensions, perceptual-semantic dimensions, cultural-economic dimensions, social dimensions, mental dimensions, political-managerial dimensions, individual-personality dimensions have a significant relationship with the concept of happiness and social vitality. The results show that in view point of the citizens, the quality of urban space is the most important dimension that has a more specific role in promoting the happiness and social vitality of citizens and also has the greatest impact on citizens’ happiness so that should be prioritize in urban space planning.

The results of the study of the average rank of the components affecting the level of happiness and social vitality of citizens show that satisfaction with family relations has the highest average rank and the level of satisfaction with government subsidies and government services has the lowest average rank. Components related to the environment and urban space also have the lowest average rating of bicycle infrastructure, climate comfort and environmental furniture, which need planning. And the memorable, readability and adaptability of spaces and spatial desirability are the highest average. An examination of the level of happiness in selected urban public spaces shows that there is a significant difference between the dimensions of urban space quality, physical-ecological dimensions and perceptual-semantic dimensions. In terms of urban space quality, Laleh Park Complex and Tabriz Grand Bazaar have the highest score. The most important strategies to improve the quality of happiness in urban public spaces are to focus on the dimensions of urban space quality, physical-ecological dimensions and semantic perceptual dimensions. Security is the most significant way to improve the quality of urban space and thus promote happiness. In the physical-ecological field, access to the park and green spaces is the most considerable solution. In the perceptual-semantic field, promoting the vitality of urban space and encouraging activity, presence and communication with space are the most important and efficient strategy. In the cultural-economic field, creating various cultural programs can be the most effective way to promote happiness in public urban spaces.