Exploring the quality of neighboring ties in Iranian Islamic neighborhood and its role in the place attachment; Case Study: Sagharisazan neighborhood, Rasht

The broadness and complexity of dimensions of urban life, especially in metropolises, have ‎diminished the role of urban neighborhoods in shaping social ties and place attachment. Though ‎many researchers have focused on quantitative measurement of the impact of the neighboring tie on ‎place attachment, a smaller number of studies are dedicated to the description of the quality and depth ‎of neighboring relations in Iranian-Islamic communities. This article tries to describe the quality of ‎neighboring ties and its interactions with place attachment through a holistic and qualitative ‎approach. With this aim, neighboring and place attachment is studied in Sagharisazan neighborhood, ‎which is one of the traditional and historical neighborhoods of the Rasht city. This neighborhood is ‎located in the central part of the city and despite many changes, it‏ ‏almost has maintained the social ‎and structural features of a traditional community. Resident’s memories and everyday life ‎experiences in the neighborhood should be analyzed to reach a comprehensive picture of the quality of ‎neighboring ties and place attachment in a traditional neighborhood. For this purpose, ‎‏17‏‎ in-depth ‎interviews with long-term residents of the neighborhood have been done by applying narrative ‎mapping method. drawing a hand sketch of neighborhood map in past and showing places on it, and ‎their changes through time, was very helpful for interviewees to remember memories from a long ‎time ago, in some cases more than half-century.in next step, qualitative content analysis of ‎information obtained from interviews have been done. Being a neighbor in this community is an ‎important certain social role that brings a certain sense of commitment and responsibility with itself. ‎High neighboring ties and social residence in neighborhood boundaries enrich different places around ‎it with social meaning and shared memories of the community residents. Therefore, it can be ‎concluded that place attachment in traditional Iranian neighborhood is mostly affected by the social ‎meaning of neighborhood places. Furthermore, place attachment among residents of the traditional ‎neighborhood is classified as an active attachment which is much more valuable than traditional or ‎inactive attachment to an urban neighborhood.