Investigating the Impact of Citizens' Attachment on Their Participation (Case Study: Shahidan Neighborhood)

Attachment to a specific place shows the significance and importance of that place for citizens and has positive consequences. Belonging causes citizens to be concerned about improving the condition of their neighborhood or place of residence, which becomes the basis for the formation of neighborhood activities and citizens' participation. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of citizens' attachment on their participation. In this regard, in order to collect research data, 384 questionnaires were distributed and completed among the residents of the Shahidan neighborhood located in District 9 of Tehran Municipality. SPSS and Smart PLS3 software were used to analyze the obtained data. According to the findings of the research, the indexes of "Citizens' attachment to the neighborhood" and "Citizens' participation" have an average of 3.08 and 3.03 respectively, which shows the favorable status of both of these indicators in this neighborhood. Moreover, the residents of this neighborhood have a high desire to interact with their neighbors, and on the other hand, they have the lowest desire to participate in financial affairs in their neighborhood. Additionally, paying attention to the modeling results, the index of citizens' attachment to their neighborhood has succeeded in predicting 38.1% of the citizens' participation index, which means that there is a direct relationship between the attachment of the people of this neighborhood and their participation in their urban and local affairs. In other words, citizens' participation and civil participation are a function of citizens' attachment, and it is possible to increase the amount of this participation by increasing citizens' attachment to their place of residence.