Assessing the level of citizen participation in local management: case study Sanglaj neighborhood

Introduction and Aim:

International experiences show that planning can no longer meet the stakeholders' demands as omniscient. So, over the past decade focusing on bottom-up planning has been more successful in many different areas of the city in developing countries. Nevertheless, the consequences of this approach should be more investigated in developing countries. Todays, centralized top-down planning is used in the most cities of developing countries which stakeholders' partnership has been limited in urban management. The main aim of this study is to assess citizen participation in local management in the Sanglaj neighborhood.

Research method:

This research is of descriptive and analytical method. Using non-probability sampling method, we chose 96 residents of the Sanglaj neighborhood as a model. Also we designed a Questionnaire and distributed among them. The obtained data were analyzed using SPSS software. Tests used in this software, Single-sample t test and Pearson's correlation tests.

The findings:

The findings and statistical tests showed desire to participate among the citizens of the Sanglaj neighborhood is high and the average 57/3 confirms it. Finally, it was shown, there is a significant relationship among participation and performance of local councils. Correlation Test value is 0/837 and based on standard interpretation, this value is acceptable.

The results showed that the level of citizen participation is not desirable, which explains the low level of citizen participation in urban governance is based and it can be concluded that enough context for citizen participation in local management is not provided. However, the willing to participate at community affairs among the citizens of Sanglaj neighborhood is in good standing. So this is a valuable capital and a potential that must be treated. Finally, it is suggested that councils could still regard as a public institution to provide public participation in urban governance.