The facilitating role of community-oriented processes in the economic empowerment of peri-urban neighborhoods of Zabol

Introduction

Facilitation is a concept that was formed in the field of development in the second half of the 20th century and after the Second World War. This concept is in the direction of better communication so that we can understand a better concept of life as a human being (Hogan, 2002). In this context, Hogan acknowledges that facilitation can promise a better life to humans and provide suitable grounds for understanding the ever-increasing and ever-changing complexities of the global village. But today, unfortunately, the bureaucratic system Ruling over undeveloped or less developed societies is a big obstacle to achieving cooperative development (documentation report of Jiroft sustainable urban regeneration workshop, 2014.) On the other hand, urban physical development in the world, especially in developing countries, follows the pattern of instability with the title of urban sprawl. Following this trend, urban expansion occurs mainly in peri-urban areas and affects the villages near the cities physically, socially, economically and culturally (Mir star et al., 2015). Sistan region is no exception to this rule. Marginalization in this region due to the border and strategic conditions in the east of Iran, in addition to the unsuitable urban environment, has caused problems and economic issues such as high unemployment rate, lack of employment opportunities and the spread of unemployment, severe shortage of livelihood and low income. (Interview with managers of facilitation offices, 1400). According to the problems that have arisen in the field of marginalization, the social affairs organization, by examining the experiences and measures taken and taking into account community-oriented approaches in order to reduce social harms and improve development indicators in the localities, created a program called Local facilitation and development offices were defined and operated in the less privileged and marginalized areas. These offices were established in ten provinces of the country since 2016. The purpose of creating these offices is to get to know the neighborhood, attract people's participation, community-oriented planning, build trust, improve people's quality of life, empower people, sensitize and pay attention to social issues, involve the target community with Issues and problems, social participation of citizens, transformation of passive citizens into demanding citizens are among the axes of activities of facilitation offices, and the output of these programs can end up empowering the local community. According to the mentioned materials, the present research is designed to answer the following basic question. What effects has the facilitation of community-oriented processes had on the economic development of the peri-urban areas of Zabol.

Research Methodology

The current research is applied and of a descriptive-analytical type, the information and data of which were collected using the library and field method (interview, observation and questionnaire). The spatial territory of this research is the households living in five neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city (9244 households). Then, according to the number of households in the above neighborhoods, the number of (369) households was obtained as the sample size using Cochran's formula at the 95% confidence level, to estimate the sample size in each neighborhood from the rule of proportional distribution in each neighborhood. was used of these, 26 questionnaires in Islamabad neighborhood, 38 questionnaires in Hossein Abad neighborhood, 76 questionnaires in Resalat neighborhood, 99 questionnaires in Masum Abad neighborhood and 130 questionnaires in North Hirmand neighborhood were selected as samples. In the next place, referring to the sample framework, the validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by the opinion of the panel of experts in the field of the research subject, and to determine the reliability of the research instrument, a pre-test (30 questionnaires) was conducted, and the value of Cronbach's alpha was calculated for the scale of economic facilitation. 0.84 was obtained. One-sample T-test and ANOVA were used to analyze the data.

Results and discussion

One-sample t-test was used to compare the average facilitation of community-oriented processes in its economic dimension with a standard or assumed value. In this test, we compare the mean of the sample with the value of 3 items. If the value of each variable is significantly higher than 3 (p<0.05), it can be concluded that the level of that factor is significantly high. The range of scores is from 1 to 5, and a score of 3 means average. The results of the one-sample T-test in Table 3 showed that the average of the economic development component is equal to 3.27, which is higher than the average value (p<0.05). Among the neighborhoods, the highest average is Masum Abad neighborhood with an average of 3.33, Northern Hirmand neighborhood with an average of 3.29, Islamabad neighborhood with an average of 3.23, Resalat neighborhood with an average of 3.21, and Hossein Abad neighborhood with an average of 3.16. They have that all the averages are slightly higher than the average. Then, the average facilitation of community-oriented processes in the economic dimension was compared based on the neighborhood with the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test. The findings show that there is no difference in the economic components of community-oriented facilitation between the five neighborhoods, and the neighborhoods generally had almost equal levels of community-oriented economic components (p<0.05).