Reza Kheiroddin; Alireza Salahimoghadam
Abstract
Along with the evolution of the empowerment approach and the expansion of community-based policies, the development of local communities and informal settlements has shifted to asset-based rather than the need-based approach. The community development according to this approaches which is known ...
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Along with the evolution of the empowerment approach and the expansion of community-based policies, the development of local communities and informal settlements has shifted to asset-based rather than the need-based approach. The community development according to this approaches which is known as “Asset Based Community Development” (ABCD), mostly focuses on the assets and capabilities of the community, including physical, social and economic resources. This is to get people out of the cycle of poverty and need and to promote their human and social dignity.Informal settlements, despite the dominant view about their problems and anomalies, are home to a section of society who do not have enough power and courage to join the city's socio-economic body. Farahzad, one of the Tehran’s informal neighborhood was selected as a case of study and we intend to explore the underlying asset development policy for organizing informal settlements. The methodology of this study is a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods and it can be put in the category of descriptive-analytical researches. 93 households were selected as the sample and statistical analysis including acceptable test were applied. This study showed that the social capital can be considered as of the important assets in Farahzad neighborhood. This advantageous asset can be better addressed by these factors: sense of belonging, social cohesion, participation and collective action. The networks of community relations were also evaluated and analyzed, which evidenced the stronger inter-ethnic relations than inter-ethnics, as well as the strong connections of the NGO’s with ethnicity.
