The urban third Places and Social Sustainability of Isfahan city areas

The cognition of the future intelligently accompanied with rapid developments of the society are the two main foundations of planning processes. The current applied research is descriptive-analytic based on library research as well as a field study in terms of methodology.347 participants were purposively selected as the sample from all residents in the city of Isfahan as the statistical population of the research. To achieve the objectives of the research, the eight indicators of third places (accessibility, inviting, dynamism and vitality, comfort and security, flexibility, performance, form, meaning and content) and the six indicators of social sustainability (social security, social interaction, social justice, social participation, sense of social belonging and social identity) were extracted. This research aims to explore the role of third places in social sustainability in the urban districts of the city of Isfahan and to study its significant dimensions and components. DEMATEL method was used to analyze and rank cause and effect factors in discovering the trend of the pattern for the classification of sustainability components and the role of third places. The results of the cause and effect analysis through DEMATEL show that dynamism and vitality, and flexibility are the main and the most influential factors in increasing the social sustainability in Isfahan. The results also highlight the impact of combined components and indicators of the third place with different dimensions of the city on various aspects of sustainability including social sustainability, especially in the urban districts in Isfahan.