The Impact of Village Conversion into City on Development of Rural Areas: A Case Study of Soltanabad City of Iran

Over recent decades, in most developing countries, the tendency of planners to spatial decentralization and the reduction of regional inequalities and urban-rural dichotomies led to the adoption of different urban strategies; one of the most important strategies is to turn the village into a city and strengthen it. Due to the importance of the issue, the present descriptive-analytical research aimed at identifying the effects of village conversion into the city on the development of rural areas in Soltanabad city in Sabzevar County if Iran in 2019. The required data were collected in both documentary and survey methods. The data were analyzed by SPSS and LISREL software, using single sample T-tests and factor analysis in exploratory and confirmatory methods. The study findings showed that some of the effects of rural conversion to the city in Soltanabad included: creating new job opportunities, satisfaction with the village transformation to city and reducing the motivation of people to migrate to other cities. Therefore, the study results indicated the success of ‘rural-urban conversion’ policy in the rural development of the studied area.