Urban Typology Focusing on the Social pathologies in super wicked Neighborhoods of Fifteen Areas of Isfahan

 The metropolitan areas of Iran are on the verge of being overwhelmed by the marginalized neighborhood. Unless the preventive measures are taken, the marginalized areas will soon take over urban ones. During the last century, Isfahan has had the highest level of industrialization and the most rapid rate of population growth. This exorbitant amount of industrialization and urbanization without considering urbanism and sustainable development contributed to the creation of super wicked neighborhoods. In simple words, the notion of super wicked neighborhoods refers to the parts of the city with plenty of social pathologies including violent crimes and a low level of security. Along with these issues, other negative factors such as poverty, unemployment, worn-out textures and limited service and welfare facilities have contributed to the lack of hope for improving their conditions. Levin Kelly (2012) specified four major features of issues related to the super wicked concept as follows: At first, slight opportunities are remained to solve the mentioned problems. On the other hand, the individuals seeking to solve problems are per se part of these problems. Another feature of these issues is the lack or little extent of the required central authority to solve the problem (Kelly, 2012). The last feature but not the least to mention is the traditional problem-solving methods that are no longer feasible in solving these types of problem.   In the present study, the library or documentary research method (DSM) was used for data collection. The qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) was implemented by Boolean algebra technique. The results of the study indicated that although the social pathologies were high in most urban areas of Isfahan, in the super wicked neighborhoods of 14th area, these issues were interrelated with adverse economic conditions, the migration of low-income people and high rate of violent crimes. In Boolean algebra, each variable is considered as a dichotomy binary variable “presence /absence or existence / absence". Therefore, through the Boolean analysis of the social data, all variables including both independent and dependent ones should be converted into dummy variables (zero and one) and analyzed in two nominal categories. In this study, the variables of the research were categorized in dummy variables based on the central tendency of six types of Isfahan districts. In a way that the code 1 represents the higher values from the mean and the code zero represents the mean and lower values. The combination of causal conditions in Boolean algebra is indicated by the symbol (x). In the case-based approach, the hypothesis is based on the assumption that an effect is a specific combination of causal conditions. For instance, an equation in the form of (y = AB + CDE) means that the effect (y) is resulted either from the combination of the conditions A and B (AB), or from the combination of E, D and C (EDC). Generally, in an equation, English capital letters indicate the presence of each causal condition and small letters represent the absence of them (Kafi, 2014: 136-139). Then, the data related to the causal conditions (socio-economic, the youth of population, population density, immigration databases) and the effects (Social pathologies and the formation of super wicked neighborhood) have been evaluated based on the district divisions of Isfahan.   Based on socio-cultural homogeneity, six different types of urban areas were identified including the historical (1st and 3rd), rural-urban (2nd, 9th and 11th), the modern (5th and 6th), marginalized and super wicked (14th) areas etc. The super wicked and marginalized areas have been expanded and have been concentrated mainly in the eastern and northern parts of Isfahan. According to the results of this study, the western area of Isfahan had the lowest level of social pathology, delinquency and crime in spite of having high rate of unemployment, high level of poverty and the countless worn-out tissues. In other words, it can be claimed that this is due to the type of social structure, traditional and indigenous texture as well as mechanical integrity that are still maintained in the region. On the other hand, a low stocking density has taken place in this area. In fact, each 15 districts of Isfahan have their own crime zone. However, some urban parts of Isfahan can be interpreted as super wicked areas that have converted into a network of interconnected issues. By the same token, Delake et al. (2017) revealed that the concentration of cultural, social and health infrastructures either in the historical part or in the modern part of the city have led to a high level of social resilience in these areas. Therefore, they need to have the required capacity to endure and face with the tensions and external disorders. On the contrary, the marginalized areas have less resilience due to the lack of required infrastructures.