Impact of Local Management on the Economic, Social and Cultural Development of Rural Settlements: The Case of Shahrekord City

Ayatolah Mozafari vanani ¹ ( -- )
hamid jafari ² ( Assistant Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities )

Submited date : 2021-11-05 Accepted date : 2022-01-10

Keywords: economic development, Social and Cultural development, Rural settlements, Local Management, Shahrekord city,

Abstract :

Accounting for the challenges pertaining to rural management in the political, social, economic and cultural dimensions of Iran over the past few decades, and perhaps in the last century, has been one of the most crucial and sensitive problems of planners and experts. On the other hand, the exponential urban growth has been less a corollary of industrialization and improvement of production methods than the immigration from rural areas and urban attraction factors. Thus, most of the migrants from rural to urban areas are young people. This culminates in numerous issues including aging (labor force in the agricultural sector) population in rural regions and the emergence of other immigration ramifications such as reduced utilization of rural facilities and services and a sharp increase in density in cities and its consequent issues. These problems can be due to a lack of organized management in rural areas. Therefore, considering the importance of the role of local managers in villages, this paper is aimed at scrutinizing the effect of local management on economic, social and cultural developments of rural settlements in Shahrekord city, Iran. The research method adopted is descriptive-analytic in the geographical region of Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, located 45 km southwest of Isfahan. Information and data were gathered through library and case studies (i.e. questionnaire). The data were analyzed via structural equation modeling (SEM) and confirmatory factor analysis techniques, using Amos software. The elicited results demonstrated that with the increase in local management, the economic, social and cultural facets will improve as well. Therefore, understanding the real trend and the status of the existing problems vis-à-vis rural management can help the policy makers and planners in this field to foresee a favorable vision and pave the way for providing strategic approaches and suggestions for future measures to ameliorate the situation.