Empowerment urban management system based on the pattern of citizen- based city in Ilam

Subject Areas : Urban and Regional Planning Studies

asghar Nazarian ¹ (استاد دانشگاه تربیت معلم، گروه جغرافیا، تهران، ایران)
nader Shohani ² (دانشجوی دکتری جغرافیا و برنامه‌ریزی شهری، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، واحد علوم و تحقیقات، تهران، ایران)

Received: 2011-07-24 Accepted : 2011-12-16 Published : 2011-11-22

Keywords: Reinforcement, urban management, citizen, citizens' participation (partnership), citizen-based city,

Abstract :

  Introduction   In urban life, city includes three major parts: citizen urban context and urban management. At first, urban management has a close relationship with urban community in the macro level, formation and developing of local and urban civil community, local citizen-making, promoting urban citizenship, establishing citizenship rights and duties, improving citizen partnership and giving attention to citizens' opinions in administration of local and urban affairs. This paper is about to discuss urban management reinforcement through concepts of social justice, citizen partnership, collaborative and responsible urban management and citizenship affecting durable human development in Ilam. In citizen-oriented city, to improve and reinforce urban affairs management, participation of all users including government (municipalities), private sector and non- governmental organizations, people and citizens are inevitable things and citizens should in turn take more important steps to improve their city: Qualities of a citizen-based city are as follows: 1. The city in which urban management besides clarity and responsibility in its performance makes attempt to fulfill social justice and pay attention to people's demands. 2. The city in which citizens besides responsibility and partnership in all urban affairs trust in urban management and belong to their city in terms of place. 3. The city in which access to urban facilities and services for citizens' use is appropriate and citizens access to facilities easily (source: student)   *    Responsible Author:                                                         as _ [e-mail]           Research Methodology   The expected approach in this paper is descriptive-practical and survey-based. Descriptive because it deals with non-manipulated variables and survey-based because it relies on questionnaire, data collection and extension of findings for population. Ilam, the central and the most important city is located in the north of province. Ilam as a first regional city, has more than 25 percent of the whole population and 45 percent of the whole city-dwelling population in province. Results   This city has an area with 17 square kilometers in terms of specified (limit by comprehensive city plan. In this paper, more than 70 questions of citizens and urban directors were asked in forms of questionnaire randomly to study the citizenship state for reinforcing urban management in Ilam. In these questions, urban management performance, citizens' partnership state and the relationship of these variables with urban management reinforcement has been evaluated. According to these qualities, urban management performance has been measured with mixture of more than 30 questions in all areas. According to extracted statistics, 27,8percent of respondents evaluated urban management performance as well, 24.6 percent average and 47.6 percent considered it to achieve citizen-based city. The participation rate has been evaluated in several questions combined together which of all respondents 54 percent showed high, 21 percent average and 24.3 percent low participation. It implies that the participation rate among people is 54, namely half of people are active in urban affairs. In terms of attitude and intellectual needs, most people agree on participation in urban affairs and consider it a useful act to improve urban affairs but in practical dimension, most resist for different participation, this shows that a kind of balance recognition has been developed among citizens and their recognitive view don't correspond to common practical approaches. Conclusion   The main challenges of citizen-based urban management in Ilam includes:The loss of independent regional identity, the lack of city-dwelling background, tribal life and culture in Ilam (rural culture). The regions of Ilam city in terms of a citizen-based city (participation and) is not of good results and this shows that Ilam city is not directed based on citizenship principles and most citizens and also urban managers are not mentally enough prepared to understand citizen-based city. Although, final comment on this issue is due to future studies and its comparison with previous researches. To achieve this vital concept, approaches will be offered to get research goals for reinforcing urban management.