A comparative study of the extent of public participation in informal and planned urban settlement (Case study: Molla-zeynal and Dadgostari districts of Tabriz)

Global experiences show that from the 1980s onward urbandevelopment plans have received increasing attention to participatoryapproaches. To the extent that urban participation is currently the key tothe success of the urban development project, as well as one of thecriteria for assessing the performance of the urban management systemand its components (municipalities and city council). People'sparticipation in the development process is so credible that developmentis equivalent to participation. Participation is one of the main concepts ofsustainable development, hence, city managers have always tried byattracting people's participation, and they can best achieve their goals ofoptimal city management, especially in the suburbs of cities. Consideringthe importance of people's participation in good city management, thepurpose of this research, is a comparative study of public participation ininformal and planned settlements (case study: Dadgostary Neighborhoodand Mollazinal neighborhood). In this research, descriptive-analytical andsurvey research has been used. The statistical population of the study iscitizens of Dadgostary Neighborhood and Mollazinal neighborhood.Based on the Cochran formula, a sample of 385 heads of householdsfrom two neighborhoods of Tabriz city randomly selected andinformation collected by documentary and fieldwork and SPSS softwarewas used to analyze the data. In this research, one-sample test, Pearsoncorrelation coefficient and regression were used to test the researchhypotheses. The results of the research suggest that, the higher theresidence of the residents in a neighborhood, the more important in termsof history and antiquity, and the greater the sense of ownership andresponsibility of its residents to their residency. Also, the greater thesense of social belonging of citizens, the more their involvement in urbanmanagement.