نشریه توسعه محلی (روستایی - شهری)
سال دوم شماره 2 (پیاپی 3، پاییز و زمستان 1389)

Using various pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers, excessive exploitation of basic natural resources in agriculture and also, excessive application of fossil energies in agricultural sector all together, have a serious role in impurity of farm products, as well as environmental pollution in the villages. Although these cases had finally led to quantitative increase of the farm products in industrial and agricultural sectors, they have arisen some harms and challenges in long term. The focal point of this article is the ever-increasing pollution of raw agricultural products and processed foods with herbal poisons, herbicides, antibiotics, and herbal and livestock hormones. One of the most important harms is the fact that the pollution of these chemical residuals has not only led to unknown diseases among people but also brought about the destruction and erosion of basic agricultural resources, as well as the destruction of the environments for the human, plant, and animal communities. The research method used in this article is clinical study or clinical diagnosis which, in some farms, is known as “pure production fields” in rural areas. The aim of this study is to examine the role of extension education in the development of organic agriculture in the Iranian villages. Decreasing the costs of human medical treatments, increasing the quality and quantity and as a result, the exportation of the agricultural products, as well as the conservation of the environment all together, need an attitude towards environmental and agricultural production in a sustainable and organic manner which itself, is in need of the presence of a comprehensive extension education system. This system is based on three main elements: continuous training, self-help incentives, and expanding the rural participation, parallel to “sustainable development of human resources”. At the end, some forwarding strategies in the process of the acceptance of the production methods in the organic agricultural system have been mentioned. These in fact, are parts of the messages and training materials which the extension education system tries to disseminate among the people in rural areas.

The present study is a meta-analysis of different studies about poverty in rural societies of Iran. The main issue in the present study is to see what the main theoretical approaches are and variables in these studies and to what extent the participatory approach has been brought into focus and what issues have been neglected. The methodology of the present study for collecting data is documentary research. Seventy theses and researches about poverty were investigated and among them thirty two theses were chosen as the statistical society of the study. Some of the important variables of the present study are: poverty definition, data collection and analysis of data, trend of poverty in rural societies, and effective factors, results and strategies for poverty reduction. Data analysis of this study was based on content analysis. Based on the findings of the study, most of the present data have been obtained through secondary data of the statistical center of Iran and the have been mostly analyzed via quantitative methods and econometrics and the emphasis, about rural poverty, has been on monetary and financial aspects. According to research results, poverty should also be analyzed from participatory and human aspects. In most of the studies this aspect has been neglected. Moreover, in the these studies, topics like effects of poverty on various social groups of the rural society, poverty alleviation policies and their effects and also macro phenomena such as globalization on rural poverty have not been fully evaluated.

In economic development literature, there is a relationship between productivity growth and income inequality and this is referred to as Kuznets inverted U. In other words,in first stages, there is a direct relationship between productivity growth with income inequality but later this relatioship becomes reverse. Nowadays, economists’ studies show that government policies including investment in human capital and research and development expenditures, not only have an effect on economic growth and productivity, but also they affect the proper distribution and reduction of income inequality. Accordingly, the structural factors cause Kuznets curve bends back quickly and with increasing the productivity, income inequality reduces. Because of the importance of this issue, in this study, using regression models with wide intervals (ARDL) and considering a period of thirty years (1358-1387) as time series, the relationship between income inequality and productivity growth in the presence of structural factors such as R & D spending and human capital in rural areas has been investigated. According to the results, human capital and research expenditures, internal development, research capital accumulation and international development, each with coefficients of 11 / 0 08 / 0, has a significant impact on reducing income inequality in rural areas and Kuznets hypothesis which states that there is an Inverted U relationship between total productivity growth and income inequality in rural areas and agriculture in the period of study is not voidable.

Assessing the impact of microfinance programs helps to improve the procedures and performance of ongoing activities and to formulate better initiatives in future. In this article, we provide case studies of two microfinance programs in Iran. We assess the impact of these programs on participating households in terms of financial aspects of poverty, vulnerability, and women’s empowerment. Our field study has benefited from a set of qualitative and quantitative techniques. In our quantitative survey of households we have used new program participants as the control group. Our qualitative techniques have been primarily used to complement and add nuance to our quantitative survey results. Participation in either program has not improved incomes, assets, or expenditures on food and clothing among households. It has, however, resulted in the diversification of participating households’ income sources. Furthermore, the programs have empowered women when women have had direct control over the received credit. Finally, in some cases programs have actually increased the vulnerability of certain households.

Considering the changes in population and social aspects of society in Iran within the last decades, the problem of late marriage age and its negative consequences is arising. This problem, if continues consistently, can provoke a crisis and threaten the society. The age of marriage among girls, according to official census, is increasing. In addition to urban districts, this problem is also eminent in rural districts. Considering the condition of rural girls and their privation from many facilities that exists in urban districts and the severe problem of remaining single in traditional societies, this issue needs more attention. However, this problem, like many other social problems, is city-centered and the rural society is in the second degree of priority and the problem of privation is neglected by the administers. In this study, we used the theoretical framework of women emigration model (Sadati and Todaro), theoretical changes in marriage models, and emigration theories based on gender selection. Research methodology of this study is based on evaluating the secondary data field study using the cooperative appraisal in Hamadan villages in three project format(local development, stable development, and rural girls employment evaluation). Participants of this study are the women and girls in rural districts in Hamadan province and selected rural villages in Razan,Bahar,Famnin,Nahavand. Results of the study shows that the reasons behind the late marriage are increasing the level of education among men, their emigration to cities and economical problems (unemployment, and lack of job opportunities).

One of the most important issues in spatial and regional planning is identification of suitable regions for locating facilities and services. There are different models and methods in this area and rapid expansion of geospatial science especially geographical information system (GIS) has made the modeling and the analysis of spatial data possible. The aim of this study is the analysis of land suitability to locate rural service centers using social, economic and environmental factors in Soltanieh County. To this end, two methods of multi criteria decision making (MCDM) i.e. PROMETHEE II and pair-wise comparison were used in geographical information systems environment. The result of this research is reported on a grading scale from one to five which varies from the least to the most suitable areas respectively. Finally some investigstions also showed that the most suitable areas agree well with the selected criteria.

Village atmosphere is made of different subsystems each of which has different elements and internal relations and they determine the way that organization of village atmosphere is made. Harmony and lack of harmony in finding a place in village atmosphere can take different forms. Now, one of the most important aspects of lack of harmony in the villages can be seen in the establishment of residential villages in the border of rivers. Different strategies and policies for improving residential texture of villages have been looked for in details, i.e., they have sought the solutions of the problems in villages’ residential subsystems. In the present study, considering the systemic views and the importance of the role of rivers, we have tried to emphasize the need to have deeply-held views about the role of rivers in villages. In this study the pathological behavior of the river, from the perspective of the rural space organization pathology, has been studied. Statistical society of this study includes a number of villages in the border of rivers like Gorganrood in Golestan province,Masouleh in Gilan province,Ijrood in Zanjan province, Layjand in Esfahan province, Shahrood in Qazvin province, and Karaj in Tehran province. Based on the results of the study, organizing the residential part of border villages and directing them in rural leading plans toward a spatial discipline, can have stable effects on the texture of rural residential and direct it toward a systematic behavior.

Drug abuse among adolescents is one of the main sanitary psychic- social challenges of societies. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship among parenting factors, peers, coping style, self-esteem, and aggression on drug abuse (Families, Environment and Individual Factors) among adolescents in Karaj villages. Participants of this study were 447 adolescents (239 female and 208 male) that were selected from the high school students of Karaj (Garmdarreh, Mohammadabad and Kamalabad) via multi-stage cluster sampling. The instruments for this study included scales of effective relation with parents and condition of peer groups, Risk and Protective Factor Inventory (RAPI) Questionnire, Risky Behavior Inventory Questionnire, Aggression Questionnaire (AQ), Rosenberg's self-esteem Index, Coping Inventory Stressful Situation (CISS). Path analysis was used in order to analyze and interpret the causal model that was adapted from adolescents’ social learning drug use model. According to indices of goodness of fit (meaningfulness of X2, low level of error, etc), the suggested model was completely suitable through controlling the hypothesis and making the variances constant. The results indicate that deviant peers and aggression have direct influence, and parental rejection has indirect influence on use of drugs. Also, the interaction of parental rejection, aggression, self-esteem, and deviant peers have a direct influence on use of drugs. Therefore, deviant peers, in addition to the direct influence, have a mediator role in the relationship between parental rejection and substance use. Familiar risky behaviors such as parental rejection, aggression and communication with deviant peers were the most predictive variables among adolescents. With this view in mind, the interventions that lead to improvement in the relationship of adolescents and peers and receiving attention from parents and reducing aggressive behaviors of adolescents, can reduce and prevent the use of drug among the adolescents.