Evaluating the Extent of Social Trust the Citizens Build in Tehran Urban Management via Fuzzy Topsis Method

Iran’s social and cultural conditions and changes and the importance of trust in citizens’ social interactions over the recent years have foregrounded the issue of probing the extent of trust in individuals, groups, and organizations. Urban management, particularly municipality, as one of the largest social institutions, can enjoy much more efficiency and productivity provided that it wins citizens’ trust, as social and intangible capital, utilizing it for actualizing organizational purposes and urban development. Due to the fact that urban management, as the section responsible for managing cities, is one of the integral parts of modernity, investigating the extent of trust in this domain bears significant importance. The major theme of the current research is evaluating and ranking the districts of Tehran municipality according to the extent of social trust in urban management upon Fuzzy Topsis method. The research population was the 22 districts of the city of Tehran and the samples were at least the 18-year-olds residing the city. Utilizing Cochran formula, sample size was estimated and to ensure accuracy of the data, 400 participants were involved from the very districts and according to the ratio of the population of each district through Cluster sampling method. To collect data, a quadripartite questionnaire, the validity and reliability of which were found to be significant, was utilized. The results indicate that the residents of the district 11 of Tehran municipality are ranked first in the extent of trust in urban management among the other districts.