درخت حوزه‌های تخصصی

Purpose- The implementation of participatory projects aiming socio-economic empowerment and environmental sustainability is one of the sustainable management strategies in arid rural areas across the world in the recent decades. This study was conducted to answer two questions: What have been the characteristics and achievements of participatory development and community-based projects in rural areas located within the critical centers of Sistan, Jazmourian, and Rigan? How is a process model for rural development planning consistent with the geography of aforementioned areas? Design/methodology/approach- The present study is descriptive-analytical and the research process includes the analysis of the goals and final achievements of participatory plans in Rigan (RFLDL), the progress and development Plan in Ghaleh-Ganj, the Carbon Sequestration plan in Jazmourian and Lashar, the Menarid Project in Sistan, "Village without unemployed" project, SAHAB community-based projects, and ASEMAN project from Barekat Foundation in Sistan region. The required data consisted of the performance statistics of the above-mentioned projects, and the required analysis was conducted on the dat. Finding- Each of these projects has positive achievements in accordance with its short-term goals. Although it is quantitatively desirable, they failed to continue to operate in a regular and stable planning process in rural areas. Execution of a process model for rural development planning requires institutional transformations and the establishment of an integrated facility direction system for the economic infrastructure of rural areas (with a focus on the value chain) and a series of previous and subsequent jobs in each chain.  Research limitations/implications- Among the main limitations of reformation in the programs and continuous learning from past experiences are the effort of conductors in charge of implementing rural development projects to indicate the expected achievements by relying on seemingly favorable statistics with false documentation, and the weakness or lack of a public oversight system on the actual achievements of projects. Real decentralization in the country's rural planning system, the establishment of a public oversight system, and a process planning are the best strategies for sustaining local communities.

Purpose - Rural municipality, as an organization for sustainable rural development, is supposed to be a public entity for rural administration supervised by villagers through the Islamic Council. Capital inputs are vital for achieving the best performance of rural municipalities in order to realize the development in rural areas. The main purpose of this article was to investigate the effect of social capital on the performance of rural people. Design/methodology/approach - The study area of this research is located in the villages of Sonqor and Kolyai Counties in Kermanshah Province. The statistical population of this study is 180 villages with rural municipalities, and 123 samples were determined by Cochran's formula. 28 items for rural performance of rural municipalities and 30 items for social capital were utilized to design the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha method was used for the reliability, and experts’ opinions were used for to determine the validity. The correlation for the collected data was analyzed by Pearson Correlation Coefficient. Finding - The findings confirm that there is a significant relationship between the level of social capital and the performance of the rural municipalities. Among the indicator of social capital, social participation has the highest correlation and social trust has the lowest correlation with the performance of rural municipalities. The variables entered in the regression equation were able to explain 32% of the variance of the dependent variable. In addition, among them, the dependent variable is affected by the social participation at the highest and the social trust at the lowest.

Purpose - Gender analysis is a sort of methodology offering a comprehensive image of the contribution and role of women and men in the economy of a community. In this exploration, it has been endeavored to investigate the role and contribution of women in producing and profiting from the financial benefits of saffron as an essential and exportable economic product. Design/methodology/approach- For this purpose, 253 saffron producers in 9 villages of the cities of Torbat-e-Jam and Bakherz were studied as a statistical sample using descriptive-analytic research method, including a questionnaire and a semi-organized interview. Data were analyzed by T-test, MANOVA, Duncan and Fisher test using SPSS software and Rural Participatory Appraisal (PRA) research. Finding - The outcomes of the study exhibited that there is a significant difference between the participation of family members in the studied area during different phases of production (planting, harvesting, cropping, marketing, and sales). Moreover, the inferential findings revealed that although the men's participation ratio of only 24% is significantly higher than women's participation in the production of saffron, the benefit rate of the gained saffron production profit for the men (i.e. 74/16%,) is significantly higher than the benefit rate for women (i.e. 25/84%). The Rural Participatory Appraisal method also revealed that there is a significant difference between the physical participation and saffron income between males and females. In other words, men possess almost all the financial benefits of saffron production; in fact, women are deprived of the sources that can help them be empowered in economic and social areas. Of course, rural women in the study area did not express dissatisfaction with this issue, and they believed that this income would be well spent for the whole family.

Purpose- Today, tourism has become the largest industry in the world with both direct and indirect socio-economic effects. Given the diverse climatic conditions and limited water resources for agriculture in Iran, among various forms of tourism, tourism in desert areas with a multifaceted approach can narrow the gap caused by environmental constraints and play an important role in the development of different areas such as eastern regions of Isfahan province, which have many tourist attractions. In this research, we try to identify and evaluate land suitability for tourism development in counties located in desert areas of Isfahan province. Design/methodology/approach- In this research, the multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) method was used in the GIS environment. Considering the variety of criteria used, before preparing the final map of land suitability, selected criteria were categorized in different groups with regard to topography, climate, land covers and animal species diversity, environment, hazards, socio-economic aspects. Then, land suitability classes in each of the mentioned groups were identified. In the following step, the maps produced in each of these groups were given to the relevant experts to generate the final map of the land suitability according to the current situation, weigh the selected criteria based on the AHP paired comparison, and implement the results of this comparison in the GIS environment through applying weighted linear combination (WLC) method. Findings - The results of multi-criteria evaluation showed that the study area has highly suitable lands in almost all assessment groups, and there were no specific human and natural constraints in this area. The result of the final land suitability map also showed that 21044 square kilometers of the total area (nearly 30 percent) were ranked in the “very suitable” and “suitable” classes, indicating high capacity and capabilities or minimum natural and human constraints for tourism development in the region. Practical implications- Making use of the capabilities of desert areas in eastern regions of Isfahan province and providing the necessary conditions for tourism development with regard to the particular natural and human conditions of this region can offer the best available, affordable, and effective alternatives in the short term to tackle the current problems based on the principles of sustainable development in these areas. The problems include socioeconomic inequalities between developed and underdeveloped regions of Isfahan province, limited water resources for development of agricultural activities, and low ecological capacity of the region for some activities especially in vulnerable communities.