Physical and Spatial Reflection of Neoliberalism Policies in Urban Peripheral Settlements of Birjand

The purpose of this research is to investigate and evaluate the physical and spatial effects of executive actions affected by the approach of neoliberal policies in the planning system in the urban peripherals of Birjand. In terms of nature and method, the present study is descriptive with a survey approach. Data collection was done through a questionnaire and data analysis was done using classic and spatial statistics indexes. The research population included the surrounding villages of Birjand city, and the samples were selected according to distance and population. First, villages located within 15 km of the legal boundary of Birjand city were selected, then villages with more than 20 households were selected as samples. The number of samples included 22 settlements with 7739 households based on the 2016 census. The sample size at the household level was selected using Cochran's formula with an error level of 0.5%, which includes 336 households based on the population ratio of each village. The results showed that the actions affected by the approach of neoliberal policies by the planning system on spatial and physical changes in Birjand peripheral were significant at a "high" level. Then, the comparison test of the average of the societies (independent paired test) was conducted in order to compare the degree (power and intensity) of the effects of neoliberal policies in two physical and spatial domains. The results showed that the effectiveness of neoliberal policies in spatial and physical dimensions was almost the same. Also, the results show that as the distance from the city center increases, spatial and physical developments increase, and in this regard, executive proposals have been presented.