Exploring and explaining the limitations of social empowerment of villagers (Case study: Central and Zebarkhan Districts in Neyshabur County)

Achieving the goals of sustainable development, especially sustainable rural development, required to empowerment of rural households in different dimensions. Therefore in this study has attempted to investigate the most important constraints and limitations of rural households in the Central and Zeberkhan Districts of Nishapur County. This was a descriptive-analytic documentary field research. The field studies were performed through completing village and household questionnaires as well as related forms to field observations. The reliability of the household questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach’s alpha (87%). The rural households in the study region formed the statistical population of the research. A sample size of 373 household legal guardians was determined considering the number of households and using Cochran’s formula. Data analysis was performed using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) technique and Expert Choice. Statistical and spatial analyses were carried out employing SPSS and ArcGIS. The findings suggested that there were enormous or extremely enormous barriers and limitations to the social empowerment of 17.43% of the studied households. On the other hand, The results of one-way variance analysis confirms that indicators related to educational facilities by coefficient of 0.1292, partnership by coefficient of 0.1032 and social capital by coefficient of 0.0588, are considered the most influential factors in the onset or exacerbation of social empowerment constraints and limitations of studied rural households.