Analysis of Social Welfare Indicators in Urban Areas Emphasizing Justice (Case Study: District One of Qazvin Municipality)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant professor of urban planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Branch, Qazvin, Iran

2 MA in urban planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin Branch, Qazvin, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Welfare of the citizens is one of the most important foundations to create a growing and dynamic community. This is a minimal level of well-being and social protection without current means to support basic needs, sometimes referred to as public aid. In most of the developed countries, the welfare is provided by the government from tax income and, to a lesser extent, by charities, informal social groups, religious groups and inter-governmental organizations. Welfare and social plans supported by social justice can reduce poverty and social inequality in urban societies. It is effective to resort to smaller-scale plans to bring about justice in the cities in order to achieve social welfare. Welfare can take a variety of forms, such as monetary payments, subsidies and vouchers, or housing assistance. Welfare systems differ from country to country, but are commonly provided to individuals who are unemployed, those with illness or disability, the elderlies, and those with dependent children, and veterans. A person's eligibility for welfare may also be constrained by means of testing or other conditions.
According to the egalitarian, justice can exist within the parameters of equality. This basic view can be elaborated in many ways, according to what goods are to be distributed—wealth, respect, opportunity—and who or what they are to be distributed equally among—individuals, families, nations, and species. Egalitarian theories are typically less concerned about who exactly will do the distribution or what effects their recommended policies will have on the production of the goods, services, or resources they wish to distribute. In this paper, the term “Welfare” is mainly investigated in relation with the concept of “Justice”.

Methodology 
This is an applied descriptive and static cross-sectional survey study because it focused on development of practical knowledge in a particular field. This research is a cross sectional one because it deals with the current status of the urban areas. At first, the conceptual model of the research has been prepared. In this model, welfare has been divided into four dimensions: economic, social, sanitation and physical. The data have been collected through field study and library survey methods. The level of social welfare is assessed using T-Test and the indicators are prioritized using the Friedman Test in SPSS.

Results and discussion 
The social welfare indicators in the current study are divided into several dimensions including economic, social, sanitary, and physical aspects due to opinions of experts. The questionnaire results together with status quo indicated that in the economic aspect, the indicators such as unemployment, job satisfaction, per capita income, purchasing power, and housing value were affected by the employment index. In the social aspect, the largest proportion was allocated to the emigration of non-Iranian persons and individuals with low income and cultural level. The factor of weakness was effective in reducing family stability as well as increasing the sense of class differences in most of the economic indicators. In the sanitary aspect, access to health care centers as well as the personal, social, and environmental health is not very satisfactory because it mainly affected the young and economically active individuals. In the physical aspect, the quality of housing in the District 1, Qazvin, indicated the maximum percentage of building restoration and in the educational centers, the education and buildings were desirable in terms of quality. However, the job skills and the type of provided trainings were not very compatible. The leisure centers of the district indicated a lack of equal access to sport facilities and green spaces. Furthermore, despite the concentration of service and commercial uses, there was not a growing trend in the diversity of users according to the residents.

Conclusion
The demands of people are the main determinants of social welfare indicators introduced according to the situations as there is not a fixed definition of them in terms of quantity. The purpose of the current study is to assess and investigate the effects of these indicators in urban areas with an emphasis on the social justice approach in order to identify the most important indicators. In this study, the social welfare indicators establishing the social justice were determined in four aspects of economic, social, sanitary, and physical. The study hypotheses were tested after collecting the data from the status quo and questionnaires using the statistical Student’s T-Test and Friedman Test in SPSS software. In the first hypothesis, the unfair distribution of social welfare indicators in district one of Qazvin was accepted using the Single-Sample T-Test. It indicated the unwillingness of the respondents to the fair distribution of these indicators. In the second hypothesis, the Friedman Test indicated that employment is a determining factor in creating social justice for the welfare of the residents. The third hypothesis was rejected based on the favorable distribution of social welfare in the area of Imamzadeh Ali compared with Imamzadeh Hussein using Two Independent Sample T-Test. Finally, according to the results and findings, the weaknesses of each index were separately represented. These could be used for taking necessary measures such as injecting or strengthening the indicators in order to reach a fair and suitable level of urban life on a micro level. In general, the unfair distribution of welfare in urban areas could be generalized due to the various perceptions of individuals regarding the favorable level of access to social welfare. Moreover, the economic aspect indicators, especially employment, significantly affected the indicators of other aspects which could be identified as the establishing indicators of social justice in the urban areas.

Keywords

Main Subjects

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Human Geography Research
Volume 50, Issue 2
July 2018
Pages 297-315

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History

  • Receive Date: 06 November 2016
  • Revise Date: 12 January 2017
  • Accept Date: 12 January 2017

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