An Analysis of the Role of Culture in the Development of Rural Areas within Sustainable Development Approaches

Human beings live in societies, and each society has a culture. However, the elements of culture may automatically permeate from one system into another. Each human society has its own social/cultural system which is, in general, a unique representation of the culture of that society. The culture or the way of life of human societies includes economy,earning a living, way of consuming food and clothing, housing, politics, customs, marriage and kinship system, religious and metaphysical thinking, and all human and non-human issues. As you know, development is a tool for human development and perfection, not an end itself; it is a tool helping humans reach the status they deserve, considering where they live. Now rural development means improving the living conditions of low-income masses residing in villages, making them self-sufficient. Most of the scientists who in relation with rural and urban issues believe that fundamental changes should take place in villages, and that the only solution is promoting the living conditions of people in villages, with regard to all-out, sustainable rural development approaches. The researchers in the study try to find a reasonable answer to the question of whether there is a significant relation between rural areas’ culture and development. This paper is an applied research,done with a descriptive-analytical method, in which the required data has been collected through library and documents. The research results are indicative of an undesirable status of rural development within rural sustainable approach, where the share of culture has been totally neglected. The overall status of rural communities in Iran shows that cultural and sustainable development plans are not compatible with development models; moreover, since development plans have failed to reach their goals in all fields, they have shown their most negative effects (in cultural terms) on rural communities.