Explaining the Effect of Ethnicity on Place Attachment in Multi-ethnic CitiesCase Study: District One and Two of Zahedan City

Problem statement: place attachment is an important factor in individual identity, social capital, participation and readiness of citizens to sacrifice for the development and improvement of their neighborhood and the city. Hence, the lack or weakness of place attachment is a known as an obvious challenge. The purpose of this study is to test the relationship between the element of ethnicity of citizens with attachment index to their neighborhood. Research method This study is applied in terms of purpose, descriptive-analytic in terms of method, and survey regarding data collection method. Data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire by two-stage random sampling method. the sample size was 380 units in 5 neighborhoods in Zahedan. The analysis models are: ANOVA, Chi-square, single-sample T, independent samples T. But, for Post hoc test, the Summers D, Kendall Tao B, Kendall Tao C, and Lambda models were also used. The validity was confirmed by professional experts and the reliability of the research was 0.85 with Cronbach's alpha. The findings of the research show that, first, the spatial attachment index of Zahedan citizens is significantly lower than the average. Secondly, there was no significant relationship between the element of ethnicity and their place attachment index. Meanwhile, the spatial quality index of the neighborhood has a significant relationship with place attachment. Also, the level of citizen's place attachment is significantly related to the index of urban services. Because, unlike common belief, the homogeneity of the ethnicity does not create a place attachment; instead, the quality of the neighborhood and the level of service create a place attachment. Research innovation is that so far in Iran, the connection between the index of place attachment to the element of ethnicity of citizens has not been explained.