The study of the relationship between the feeling of the right to the city and the sense of social security among the citizens of Yazd

Subject Areas : Regional Planning

akbar zare shahabadi ¹ , leili bonyad ² , meysam gholami ³

1 - Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran
2 - Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Yazd University-Yazd-Iran
3 - Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Yazd University-Yazd-Iran

Received: 2019-04-11 Accepted : 2020-01-19 Published : 2020-10-22

Keywords: feeling safe, feeling right to the city, personal safety, financial security,

Abstract :

Among the fundamental concepts in the field of urban studies is the notion of right to the city which include belonging the city to its citizens. And it is the main factor of citizen's participation in urban affairs which has opened its way in the fields of urban studies and urban sociology through translating Lefebvre artworks. The objective of the current research is to examine the relationship between right to the city and Yazdi citizens' social security sense. Based on the method of implementation, the present study is survey-based, cross-sectional based on time, applied in nature, and quite large based on the breadth. The statistical population of the current research include 411051 Yazdi citizens aged 18 or above in 1397 (2019), among whom, using Cochran formula, 365 people were surveyed through a three-stage sampling method. The instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire whose face validity and reliability, through Cronbach alpha value, were confirmed. In order to analyze the data, t-test and Pearson analyses were used through SPSS. The obtained results suggest that the level of right to city and security sense is lower than average among Yazdi citizens, and also there is a positive and significant relationship between right to the city and security sense. The is also a significant relationship between urban area, housing type, and right to the city. Moreover, based on the regression model, independent variables could explain 10% of security sense variance. Abstract Extend Introduction:         Urbanization growth and the formation of the scales of urbanization growth in recent decades have given rise to new challenges in urban and contemporary urbanization. What has recently drawn attention according to cities expansion and the importance of studying urban life and the right seeking style in the city is the discussion of the right to urban life or, as Henry Lefebvre puts it, the right to the city. The right for city dwellers to be involved in decision making processes about urban spaces at whatever level of decision making process they are. In exploring the causes of the emergence of the city and why human communities came together in an environment such as the city, various theories have been proposed, one of which being the issue of security and its objective dimensions. Now that centuries have passed since the birth of the first urban communities, cities as a result of the widespread physical and demographic growth have been involved in new issues within different dimensions of citizens' lives, including the urban security of citizens in the context of the concept of the right to the city as one of the most important issues in urban organization. Security is one of the reasons for seventies and the formation of communities and as social gatherings and social interactions expand, numerous relationships in various fields (politics, culture, economics, social, etc.) are formed and security is overshadowed. In terms of inclusion and universality, social security can be termed public security which can cover the areas of social security and group security. Among security theorists, Waver has defined social security as the ability of the community to take care of its fundamental features and characteristics in conditions of change and threats, both objective and probabilistic; Emphasizing the closeness between community identity and security. He further points out society requires its identity security and accordingly, social security is the peace and tranquility that every community is obliged to provide for its members and often is divided into communication security, emotional security, life security and financial security. Therefore, social security is the peace and tranquility that every society is obliged to create for its members. Security is one of the basic needs and motivations of the human being. Thus, the main question that this study seeks an answer for is: What is the relationship between Yazdi citizens' the right to the city and their social security? Methodology:           The present study is survey-based in terms of implementation, cross-sectional in terms of time, applied in nature, and quite large in terms of breadth. The statistical population of the study was 41105 citizens aged 18 years and above in Yazd city. Using Cochrane formula, 365 individuals were studied by three-stage sampling method. The research instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by face validity and its reliability was corroborated through Cronbach's alpha. Findings:         Based on the findings, there is a positive and significant relationship between the right to city and sense of security (0.29) (p≥0.01). Furthermore, there is a positive and significant relationship between the right to the city and the dimensions of feeling of security, communicative dimension (0.96), emotional dimension (0.15), life dimension (0.20) and financial dimension (0.34).  Thus, by increasing the right to the city directly and positively, we will have an increased sense of security in all aspects. Therefore, if the citizens and residents of Yazd have a sense of communicative, emotional, life and financial security, they will certainly be more involved in the urban environment. This sense of security is especially important in the financial aspect. Increasing education, having better jobs and higher incomes for their individuals will place them on a higher socioeconomic base and thus make them feel more financially secure as a citizen. As the results of the linear regression indicate, the right to city with 0.42 beta and significance level of 0.00 had the greatest effect on the dependent variable. Also, the correlation coefficient of the independent variables with the variable of sense of security was R = 0.33 and the adjusted coefficient of determination was equal to 0.10, which indicates that 10% of the variance explains the feeling of security. Also, the regression model explained by the ANOVA test is linear and significant because the value of F test for explaining the significance of the effect of independent variables on feeling of security is 18/75 and the significance level is 0.000. Conclusion:         The present study was purposed to investigate the relationship between right to city and security among Yazd citizens. In short, the sense of security means the liberation of man from the anxieties, insecurities, and anxieties that a person living in urban communities may face. Given that Yazd has recently become a worldwide historic and UNESCO-listed city, the participation of people in producing urban space on the one hand and having a sense of security, on the other hand, to enhance participation seems essential. Descriptive findings showed that the majority of respondents were in the age group of 20.2 to 33.2%, the lowest age was 18 years and the highest age was 73 years. 50.7% of the respondents are female and 49.3% are male. Additionally, descriptive findings demonstrated that 37.3% of the respondents were single and 62.7% were married. The research findings also showed that the majority of employed respondents are 59.2% and native to Yazd 87.9%. Inferential findings also showed that there is a significant positive relationship between the right to the city and the sense of security, which means that with the increase in the right to the city among the citizens, there is a positive increase in their sense of security. The obtained results revealed that the average feeling of social security was lower than the average of the mean.  In this study, although men and women have almost similar perceptions of participation and their distribution at different levels of participation in the Arneshtain ladder is almost the same, both at the level of non-participation and at the level of physical participation, and at the level of citizen power they have a higher percentage than women. Suggestions:1. as seen in the findings, the relationship between sense of security and the right to the city is a positive and significant one. This reinforces the need for more attention by officials in schools, mass media, education and municipalities. 2. Empowering all citizens in the city to participate in enhancing urban culture and enhancing their sense of social security.

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