فصلنامه روستا و توسعه
سال شانزدهم شماره 1 (پیاپی 61، بهار 1392)

Spatial separation in terms of rural and urban areas has long been analyzed particularly in geographical literature; and in respect to economy, labor market could be assumed as one of the most important markets. Therefore, this study mainly aims at investigating development level of such a market in terms of separate rural and urban areas. To determine the development level of labor market, among many others, four indicators of ‘unemployment rate’, ‘defective employment rate’, ‘employment share in industry sector’, and ‘employment share in private sector’ during the implementation period of the Fourth Development Plan (2005-09) are taken into account; and the ‘technique of order preference by similarity to ideal solution’ (TOPSIS) is applied to model the indicators during the concerned period. Study results indicate a duality of labor market development level in rural and urban areas in favor of the latter as well as a progress of this distinction toward a greater divergence over time.

This study aims at ranking the provinces of Iran in terms of their economic development levels in urban sector as well as their agricultural levels in rural sector in 2010. For this purpose, 68 economic indicators and 46 agricultural indicators in the rural sector are used in two methods of Factor Analysis and Numerical Taxonomy. As shown by the study results, Isfahan, Tehran, Mazandaran, Fars, Golestan, Yazd, and Qom provinces are categorized into the developed provinces in terms of agriculture in the rural sector, out of which only three provinces of Tehran, Fars, and Yazd are placed in an economically developed stand, while Isfahan is of relatively developed, Golestan is of less-developed, and Qom and Mazandaran are of undeveloped provinces in economic terms.

The present study examines the constraints to the application of integrated crop management in sustainable agriculture from the view of experts in Rey county. It is an applied and descriptive-correlative study. The statistical population consists of 30 experts from Jihad for Agricultural Bureau in Rey county during 2011. The research tool is a questionnaire and its validity is assessed by academic experts and its reliability examined by Cronbach's Alpha coefficient. The examination of correlation coefficients indicates that training, financial, institutional-organizational, and cognitive limitations have significant and positive relationships with the application of integrated crop management while it has a negative relationship with age of respondents. In addition, the results of multiple regression show that the aforementioned variables can explain 60% of changes in the application of integrated crop management.

The purpose of the present study is to examine socio-economic and physical impacts of communication and information technology on the life of rural people in Dehaghan county in 2012, with a descriptive-analytical method. The information is collected from documents and fields. Based on Cochran formula the sample size is equal to 288 and the data are collected by a questionnaire. The reliability of it is assessed by Chronbach's alpha coefficient at 90%. The respondents are divided into two groups of users and non-users in four villages. Structural equation model is applied to the data. The results indicate that communication and information technology has different impacts on the life of rural people and on average, the physical impacts are stronger.

The objective of the present study is to examine the factors influencing farmers’ attitude towards land consolidation of Gholbolagh dam downstream farmers. This is a descriptive-correlational survey which is carried out in 2011. Based on Bartlett table, the sample size is equal to 120. A questionnaire is designed and its validity assessed by faculty members of Extension and Agricultural Education Department from Tarbiat Modarres University. Chronbach's alpha reliability test is used to determine the reliability of multi-item indicators and for different parts is ranged between 0.76 to 0.85. Several factors relate to farmers attitude to the land consolidation project: level of education, farmers’ satisfaction with project, economic, motivational, extension-training, socio-cultural factors and factors inherent to the project. According to stepwise regression analysis, four factors explain 66.4 percent of variance in farmers’ attitude; factors inherent to the project, economic and motivational factors and level of education.

One of the main approaches to sustainable and balanced development is the dependence of rural management on people organizations. Rural Assistance Offices (RAO) are non government organizations established in accordance with a law approved by Iran's Islamic Parliament in 1998. They start their activities from 2003 aiming for sustainable integrated development for rural areas in the country. The statistical population consists of 30 rural assistance officers in Bostan Abad county. They discuss the areas of interest by forming a focus group. The statistical population is engaging actively in the collection and interpretation of data. The study recommends the training of managers with adequate knowledge of rural areas and local organizations, adequate project appraisal before the implementation, selection of strong officers neutral to tribal issues, consideration of people attitudes and satisfaction, necessity of cooperation between officers and other organizations, and delegation of more roles to officers with respect to rural issues.

Though, migration is known as one of the implications of drought, there might be found a limited number of studies conducted to explain the effects of migrations resulting from drought. Thus, this study investigates such a process and its effective factors in 2010 through a qualitative method by using documentary data of a village in Khasouyeh subdistrict in Fars province. Findings show that a series of various natural, economic and social factors result in permanent migration of households; the natural and economic factors, however, pave the ground for temporary migrations as well; moreover, migration never comes out of a sudden decision, rather it is resulted from inefficiencies of other options. Finally, while the migrants tend to face a lot of economic, emotional and social difficulties, the migration is still assumed as a useful strategy. Therefore, it is recommended that policy-makers facilitate a drought-consistency process by means of training and direct the rural migration flows toward the areas benefiting from adequate capacities to generate employments.

This study aims at investigating the role of 'social capital' variable in socio-economic development and the extent of its influence via development of production cooperatives on the index of income distribution in rural societies. For this purpose, by applying a panel data methodology, Iranian provincial data during 2000-09 are used to study the impact of social capital development on the index of income distribution in rural areas; also, Kuznet's inverted U hypothesis test on the relation between rate of economic growth and income distribution is used. Results indicate that during the studied period, the variables of 'share of agriculture sector in GDP' and 'extent of participation in rural cooperative's have significantly positive roles as a symbol of existing social capital in reduction of economic inequality as well as more appropriate income distribution in rural areas, while the variable of GDP, urbanization rate, and rural unemployment rate would increase inequality in rural areas of the country.