برنامه ریزی فضایی (Apr 2022)
Assessing the Role of Social Participation in the Development of Rural Areas: Case Study: Rural Areas of Fereydunshahr
Abstract
AbstractProblem definition: The issue of participation has become very important in recent decades in relation to such issues as democracy, development, etc. Participation and rural development have been proposed as two related and complementary elements and increasing the level of participation among villagers is considered as a sign and means of rural development. This can be useful for future policies and planning for rural areas.Purpose: Social participation is a broad concept that includes dimensions, such as social trust, empowerment, and norms, which are discussed today in socio-economic analyses of rural development. The purpose of this article was to show the role of social participation in rural development.Methodology: The statistical population of the study consisted of 4200 rural women aged 15 years and older in Fereydunshahr City and the sample size was determined to be 240 people by using Cochran's formula.Results: Data analysis was performed using SPSS software and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). In this study, the observed variables for the two components of empowerment and social trust were obtained. Two first-order factor analysis models were developed and validated to measure two subscales of social participation. Finally, the roles and effects of the observed variables and their dual components on social participation as the main latent dependent variable, as well as the relationships between them were analyzed by using a two-factor structural model of Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). The results showed the acceptable fit and validity of both models of measuring social participation and achieving goals, as well as the second-order three-factor model for examining social participation, based on the collected data. Also, social empowerment (0.65) and trust (0.78) had an effect on social participation.Innovation: In the present study, for the first time, the issues of participation and rural development were investigated by performing the structural analyses of the two categories of social trust and social empowerment. Keywords: Social Participation, Social Trust, Social Empowerment, Rural Areas, Fereydunshahr IntroductionEach rural settlement consists of various economic, social, cultural, and political spheres, each of which represents one aspect of social life. Accordingly, rural space has a certain structure with regard to its environmental and ecological characteristics and socio-economic features, which indicate its basic capabilities and actual talents (Saeedi, 1998: 19). Reaching the all-round developments and peaks of growth and excellence has been one of the human aspirations throughout history. To achieve this aspiration, human beings have always tried different ways to test the plants and accelerate achievement of development through this process. The development of a region is not only possible by relying on natural resources, but also one of the necessary and basic items of social participation. Social participation of a city and village expresses a part of the human potential of that city and village. To develop any programs, it is necessary that social participation of the area be thoroughly examined. Social participation can be considered in a broad and macro level based on a set of moral virtues and social relations in line with developments that are influenced by both economic and political performances and the constructions of power and governance commensurate with it at the same time affect these two performances (Dini Turkmani, 2006: 171-147). Development has a concept beyond growth and requires qualitative and structural changes different from the previous routine (Sarafi, 2003: 98-74). Social participation for achieving rural development has been the growing subject of many studies in recent years. The necessary condition for the development of any society, especially rural communities, is reaching a comprehensive development by building warm relations, expanding social cohesion, and developing social empowerment and most importantly mutual trust at the individual, society, and government levels. These structures are components of social participation. Although this research field has been considered for a long time, scientific studies of villages have been of special interest only in recent decades (Saeedi, 2005: 1). Rural development includes a set of national developments. It encompasses a wide range of activities and human mobilization that enable people to stand on their own feet and eliminate structural disabilities. Considering the concept of social participation, development can be regarded as the enrichment of social actions due to the increase in the desire for empowerment and social trust. In this case, the transition to development through the creation of institutions, beliefs, value balances, norms, and productive structures, as well as the structures that encourage social participation, will be possible. According to various definitions, social participation includes concepts, such as trust, empowerment, and interaction between the members of a group. In a way, social participation causes the group to take steps towards values and norms that are positive and admired in the society (Renani et al., 2006: 151-133). In addition to modeling social participation in rural development in the two dimensions of trust and social empowerment, the purpose of this article was to evaluate the levels of social participation of the studied villages. By examining these two dimensions of social participation, we could find out how much the residents of the sample villages cared about the components of social trust and empowerment among themselves and to what extent they participated in their rural development in general. Given the importance of the issue and other issues raised, this study sought to examine two important components of social participation, namely social trust and social empowerment, in the rural areas of Fereydunshahr City.Research MethodsThe present study was an applied research in terms of purpose and a descriptive-analytical research in nature. The study population included all rural households in Fereydunshahr. According to the statistics of 2016, the total number of households in Fereydunshahr was 9275, of which 4383 households were located in rural areas. To determine the sample size, Cochran's general order was used. Due to time and economic constraints and especially the size of the statistical population specified through the corrected order, the sample questionnaires were reduced to 240ones. Villages were selected as a sample in the study area and the numbers of the samples and villages were determined systematically.The sample areas of Milagardo Chogha, Kloseh and Masir, Racheh and Islamabad, Choghiwart and Nehzatabad, and Darreh Sib and Midanak Bozorg from Barf Anbar, Poshtkuh Mogoi, Pishkuh Mogoi, Cheshmeh Negan, and Ashayer villages were selected. FindingsMeasurement models were based on Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and validation of scales.First, two models of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicating a factor for creating and measuring the two subscales of trust and social empowerment as components of social participation were drawn and analyzed in the AmosGraphic software environment. A measurement model is part of a structural equation model that defines how to measure a latent variable by using two or more observable variables. Here, the variable of social participation was a hidden variable, which had to be drawn in an oval form in the software. A hidden variable is a variable that is not measured directly, but is measured by using two or more observed variables (e.g., empowerment and social trust in this article) as a representative. The obvious variables have the same roles as the questions of the questionnaire shown in a graph with the letter of q. The hidden variable can be measured by using them. The measurement error for the obvious variable is represented by the letter of e (Ghasemi, 2010).The strength of the relationship between the factor (hidden variable) and the observable variable is indicated by the factor load, which is a value between 0 and 1. If the factor load is less than 0.3, it is ignored for having a weak relationship. A factor load of between 0.3 and 0.6 is acceptable and larger than 0.6 is highly desirable. According to Table 3, all the observed variables have positive and significant regression coefficients with their scales. As can be seen, the magnitudes of these coefficients are relatively high for all the studied cases (all the factor loads are at the significant level of 0.001). In this table, no significant levels are reported for the factor loads or the standard regression coefficients of the two observed variables. This is because these variables are considered as the reference or representative variables for the two variables of social empowerment and social trust, respectively, so as to eliminate these hidden variables without a scale, i.e, without their root and unit of measurements (Ghasemi, 1389). That is why the initial path diagrams have been considered for the arrows related to the paths between these observed variables with the hidden variable corresponding to the values of 1. The Average Variance Extracted (AVE) criterion represents the average variance shared between each structure and its own indicators. Simply put, AVE is used to validate convergence and shows a high correlation between the indices of one structure compared to the correlation of the indices of other structures.The coefficient ranges from 0 to 1 and the values above 0.5 are accepted (Fornell & Lacker, 1981: 39-50). In this research, the convergent validities or means of AVE for social empowerment and social trust it were 0.60 and 0.71, respectively. The coefficient value of structural reliability or Combined Reliability (CR) ranges from 0 to 1one variable and the values of higher than 0.7 are accepted. These values were obtained to be 0.77 and 0.74 for social empowerment and social trust, respectively, which indicated appropriateness of these subscales (Werts, 1974: 28).References- Anchorena, Jose and Fernando Anjos. (2008). Social Ties and Economic Development; Working Paper, Electronic Copy Available at:http://ssrn.com/abstract=1123767- Bartlett, J.E., Kotrlik, J.W., & Higgins, C.C. (2001). 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