Analyzing and Evaluating the Social Welfare Indicators in Urban Areas Emphasizing Justice (Case Study: Areas of District One of Qazvin)

Welfare is the provision of a minimal level of well-being and social protection without current means to support basic needs, sometimes referred to as public aid. In most developed countries, is provided by the government from tax income, and to a lesser extent by charities, informal social groups, religious groups and inter-governmental organizations. Welfare and social plans supported by social justice can reduce poverty and social inequality in societies of towns and cities and. It is effective to resort to smaller-scale plans that aim to bring about justice in the cities in order to achieve social welfare supported by just affairs. Welfare can take a variety of forms, such as monetary payments, subsidies and vouchers, or housing assistance. Welfare systems differ from country to country, but are commonly provided to individuals who are unemployed, those with illness or disability, the elderly, those with dependent children, and veterans. A person's eligibility for welfare may also be constrained by means testing or other conditions.
According to the egalitarian, justice can exist within the parameters of equality. This basic view can be elaborated in many ways, according to what goods are to be distributed—wealth, respect, opportunity—and who or what they are to be distributed equally among—individuals, families, nations, species. Egalitarian theories are typically less concerned with discussing who exactly will do the distributing or what effects their recommended policies will have on the production of the goods, services, or resources they wish to distribute. In this paper, the term “Welfare” is mainly investigated in relation with the concept of “Justice”. This is an applied descriptive and static cross-sectional survey study due to the fact that it is focused on development of practical knowledge in a particular field. Temporally, this research is a Cross sectional one because it deals with the current status of the urban areas. At first, the Conceptual model of the research has been prepared. In this model, Welfare has been divided to four dimensions: Economic, Social, Sanitation and Physical.
The data is collected through field study and library survey methods. The level of social welfare is assessed using the T-Test and the indicators are prioritized using the Friedman Test in SPSS software. The social welfare indicators in the current study are divided into several dimensions: economic, social, sanitary, and physical aspects due to their extensity and the opinions of experts. The questionnaire results together with status quo indicated that in the economic aspect, the indicators such as unemployment, job satisfaction, per capita income, purchasing power, and housing value were affected by the employment index. In the social aspect of the areas, the largest share was allocated to the emigration of non-Iranian nationals and individuals with low income and cultural level. The factor of weakness was effective in reducing family stability as well as increasing the sense of class differences in most of the economic indicators. In the sanitary aspect, the accesses to health care centers as well as the personal, social, and environmental health are not very satisfactory which mostly affected the young and economically active individuals. In the physical aspect, the quality of housing in the areas indicated the maximum percentage of building restoration, and in the educational centers, the education and buildings were desirable in terms of quality; however, the job skills and the type of provided trainings were not very compatible. The leisure centers of the areas indicated a lack of equal access to sports facilities and green spaces. Furthermore, despite the focus on service and commercial uses, there was not a growing trend in the diversity of users according to the residents. People’s demands and needs are the main determinants of social welfare indicators; these indicators are introduced or dealt with according to the situations given the fact that there is not a fixed definition of them in terms of quantity. The current study aimed to assess and investigate the effect of these indicators in urban areas with an emphasis on the social justice approach in order to identify and benefit from the most important ones. In this study, the social welfare indicators establishing the social justice were determined in four aspects (economic, social, sanitary, and physical). The study hypotheses were tested after collecting the data from the status quo and questionnaires using the statistical Student’s T-Test and Friedman Test in SPSS software. In the first hypothesis, the unfair distribution of social welfare indicators in the areas of district one of Qazvin was accepted using the Single-Sample T-Test. It indicated the unwillingness of the respondents to the fair distribution of these indicators. In the second hypothesis, the Friedman Test indicated that employment is a determining factor in creating social justice for the welfare of the residents. The third hypothesis was rejected based on the favorable distribution of social welfare in the area of Imamzadeh Ali compared to Imamzadeh Hussein using two Independent Sample T-Test. Finally, according to the hypotheses test results and findings, the weaknesses of each index were separately shown. These could be used for taking necessary measures such as injecting or strengthening the indicators in order to reach a fair and suitable level of urban life on a micro level. In general, the unfair distribution of welfare in urban areas could be generalized due to the various perceptions of individuals regarding the favorable level of access to social welfare. Moreover, the economic aspect indicators, especially employment, significantly affected the indicators of other aspects which could be identified as the establishing indicators of social justice in the urban areas.