نشریه توسعه محلی (روستایی - شهری)
سال سوم شماره 1 (پیاپی 4، بهار و تابستان 1390)

This paper tries to evaluate the relationship between steel industry with the quality of life of the residents of Yalghouz Aghaj rural district in Hgorveh town in Kordestan province. The approach used for assessing the quality of life is a social quality approach. The social quality approach with four indicators of social economic, social cohesion, sense of well being and welfare and environmental sustainability explore the quality of life. In doing this research a combination of quantitative (survey) and qualitative methods (group discussions and depth interview) has been used according to the procedures and objectives of the research. Statistical analysis of data from this study shows, when quality of life is measured with three indicators (i.e., socio–economic availability, social cohesion and sense of well being and welfare), it has no significant relationship with industry. On the other hand, when the quality of life is measured with only two indicators of having socio–economic availability and sense of well being and welfare, the relationship between industry and quality of life is approved in the 99 percent confidence level. Moreover, statistical analysis of data shows that there is a relationship between industrialization of the region with socio–economic availability at the 99 level of significance and with sense of well being and welfare at the 95 level of significance. In this study the relationship between industry with social cohesion was not confirmed. For evaluating the relationship between industry and environmental sustainability we used both group discussion and depth interview. The results of the study shows that industrialization of the region has had different and negative effects on noise pollution, water pollution, soil pollution and weather pollution.

Today, rural tourism has been considered from different aspects .In the gendered society that we live men and women have different attitudes and expectations that have been taken from their life experiences. This study, relying on gender analysis, tries to find how tourism effects are understood by men and women. The method used in this research is survey-descriptive and the data was collected through a questionnaire. Using Cronbach's alpha, we found the reliability of the questionnaire to be 0.794. The statistical society of this study includes men and women living in seven villages of Kan- Sologhan rural district which has tourism attractions. From total of 560 households in the area, 250 households have been active in tourism .Based on Morgan–Krjsy table, 158 households were chosen as sample and among them, 108 men and 50 women who were active in tourism activity participated in research. The results of the study showed that there are convergence between men and women in understanding the tourism effect from social and economical perspectives; on the other hand, there are divergence between men and women in understanding the environmental impacts and their attitude toward the efficiency of tourism development in the area. Moreover, the results show that tourism causes women to gain more knowledge and to increase their social contacts, but it failed to reduce gender inequalities and to attract the women’s practical participation in the related activities.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of Firouzabad town, as a small urban center, in developing surrounding rural regions. In this study, in evaluating the rural development, the emphasis has been put on the quality of life. This study has used survey methods and has been conducted in a cross-sectional format and applied partially stratified sampling with a sample size of 330 people including the head of the households in ten villages in the rural districts of Firoozabad. In this study, T-test and Wilcoxon tests were used for hypothesis testing. Research findings show that the Firouzabad town has improved services, income, participation, housing and personal well-being of the surrounding villages while the city has not been able to improve the immigration status and job opportunities in surrounding villages. According to the results of this study, the level of life satisfaction has been improved among people after Firouzabad became a city. Findings from the regression analysis, indices of services, immigration, participation, and personal well-being have had a direct and significant effect and housing index has significant and reverse effect on life satisfaction of people who live in studied rural areas.

"Respect the elderly to be my companion in the resurrection." Prophet Muhammad PBUH
Currently one of the main problems of elderly people is related to their mental health. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the effective social factors on mental health of elderly people in villages. In this study, the related resources, including researches and theories were studies in three groups: psychological, sociological, and ageing. Theoretical framework is a combination of theories of social production of mental illness, social aging studies, theories related to social support, and Kevin Kukryn theory and activity theory and hypotheses have been formulated based on this framework. The statistical society of this study includes all sixty years old and older people of Dasht rural district from Meshkinshahr city. The 284 subjects of the study were selected through multistage cluster sampling. We have carried out a survey and the needed information for testing hypotheses was collected via questionnaire. From mental health point of view, from 375 people who participated in the study, 62/4 percent are in the healthy group and 37/ 6 are in the unhealthy group. In this study all research hypotheses were confirmed and the relation between mental health of the elderly and variables of family support, social-economical basis, marital status, presence of children at home and everyday activities at home was confirmed. Based on the regression analysis, the martial status is the strongest variable that can predict the mental health and variables of daily activities and presence of children at home are the next variables in determining the variance of mental health.

In the present study, communication skills of elementary teachers in teaching- learning process in the first semester of the academic year of 2010-11 has been studies from the perspective of teachers and students in the villages of Arshaq region in Ardabil province. The sample of this study were chosen from teachers and students communities. This included 50 teachers and 200 students. The sampling is random and the research is a descriptive one. The measurement tool in this study is a communication skills questionnaire in two versions for teachers and students. According to research findings that have been extracted using descriptive and inferential statistics, rural teachers considered their communication skills to be high. But the communication skills of teachers are considered medium and less than medium form the students’ perspectives. In fact, teachers, unlike students, have a more positive picture of the communication skills and interpersonal communications in the classroom. In other words, according to research findings, in the surveyed rural schools, the human relations, is not satisfactory. One reason for this fact is the teachers’ unfamiliarity with culture, environment and condition of village.

The spatial courses and interactions between cities and villages in the form of rural–urban ties play a very important role in balancing city and village and regional integrative development. Social and immigration networks are among the factors that can strengthen these ties for reducing poverty and the rural–urban gap. The present study aims to analyze the role of rural immigrants living in cities in strengthening the rural–urban ties and socio-economical development in rural regions. Research method is descriptive and analytical and statistical community includes immigrant and resident families of Dehmala region (Semnan province). Ten percent of participants were selected randomly as the sample size . Unit of analysis is family and the data were collected via questionnaire. Results of the study shows that rural immigrants living in cities have kept and strengthen their ties with their home village for emotional, ethical and economical motives. They have had an important role in job creation and rural development particularly through remittances, maintaining and enhancing real estate and economic investment in rural areas. Therefore, the presence of local social organizations among immigrants is a crucial factor. As a result, participation of immigrants living in cities is an important factor in rural development and for the continuousness of this process we need the efforts of local managers as well as the change in nature of assistances from individual and consumption assistance to public and investment assistance.

The purpose of the present study is to examine the problems of agricultural marketing by rural cooperatives. The theoretical framework includes the debates about rural cooperatives and marketing of agricultural products. This study used qualitative method and depth interview of employees and members in rural cooperatives of Kooshk Hezar rural district and review of available documents. Results indicate that these cooperatives are only active in purchasing of guaranteed agricultural products. Lack of infrastructural facilities (refrigerator, processing and packing factories, etc), lack of financial resources and credit of cooperatives, weakness in human resources (knowledge, awareness, skills, etc), unclear communication between employees of rural cooperative and members and weaknesses in the bureaucratic structure of administration are among the factors that have brought about the failure of rural cooperatives in the marketing of agricultural products. In addition, other important factors are social and cultural factors, especially trust and active participation of villagers in rural cooperatives.

One of the obstacles to rural development in Iran is the dispersion and fragmentation of agricultural land. This condition, considering the production method and unusability of some of the machinery and the impossibility of using some machinery, increases the cost of production and act as a barrier to rural development. This problem can be solved with the establishment of rural production cooperatives. Therefore, investigating the factors on formation of production cooperatives in order to achieve rural development is important. The main aim of the present study is to investigate the effective factors in farmer’s membership in rural production cooperatives in the form of an integrated model of innovation dissemination. The method of this study is Description- Correlation. Data collection has been done in documentary (secondary data) and surveys (primary data) and the tool used in the survey was a questionnaire. In order to classify members of the population, the amount of land index was used. The statistical society of the present study includes all farmers living in villages covered by rural production cooperatives which have been established in Ardebil from the beginning of the first five-year program to the end of 2006. From the statistical society, 100 people from two groups, one of which was a member of cooperatives and another one was not, were chosen equally with a stratified random sampling. In addition, for determining the validity of the questionnaire we tried to get feedback about the studied issue from some of the colleagues. To determine the quantitative reliability of the questionnaire Corn Bach Alpha coefficient was used and it was around 79/45% which is satisfactory. According to the results of the study, among the innovation dissemination models (dissemination model, farm structure model and integrative model), the integrative model variables could determine 90% of the variance of the effective factors in the formation of rural production cooperatives.