The empowerment of informal settlements ‎by Moving from the need-based to asset-based approach;‎ ‎(case study of Farahzad, one of the Tehran’s neighborhoods)‎

Abstract

Along with the evolution of the empowerment approach and the expansion of community-based policies, ‎the development of local communities and informal settlements has shifted to asset-based rather than the ‎need-based approach. The community development according to this approaches which is known as “Asset ‎Based Community Development” (ABCD), mostly focuses on the assets and capabilities of the ‎community, including physical, social and economic resources. This is to get people out of the cycle of ‎poverty and need and to promote their human and social dignity.‎Informal settlements, despite the dominant view about their problems and anomalies, are home to a ‎section of society who do not have enough power and courage to join the city's socio-economic body. ‎Farahzad, one of the Tehran’s informal neighborhood was selected as a case of study and we intend to ‎explore the underlying asset development policy for organizing informal settlements. ‎The methodology of this study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and it can be put ‎in the category of descriptive-analytical researches. 93 households were selected as the sample and ‎statistical analysis including acceptable test were applied. This study showed that the social capital can be ‎considered as of the important assets in Farahzad neighborhood. This advantageous asset can be better ‎addressed by these factors: sense of belonging, social cohesion, participation and collective action. The ‎networks of community relations were also evaluated and analyzed, which evidenced the stronger inter-‎ethnic relations than inter-ethnics, as well as the strong connections of the NGO’s with ethnicity.‎

Keywords

• informal settlements
• asset-based development
• social capital
• local assets
• farahzad neighborhood ‎of tehran