A Qualitative Study on the Perceptual Lag of Environmental Risks in Tehran

Risk is a concept and phenomenon that will deals with the possibility of danger and the power of harm in the future and belongs to the risks ahead. The approach to risk, in addition to technical and computational evaluation, follows cultural and social patterns. Therefore, it extended to the perceptual and activity aspects of human beings. The present study targeted the mental evaluation of urban dwellers about environmental risks in Tehran from the perspective of informed subjects. This study collected the data by adopting the method of grounded theory and conducting twenty semi-structured interviews of higher education informants during the process of purposeful and theoretical sampling and achieved theoretical saturation and conceptual regulation. Findings indicate that in terms of subjects, urban dwellers in Tehran do not have a significant perception and activity in the face of environmental hazards to the city of Tehran. On the one hand, in their minds, the perception of environmental risks has not been determined much, and on the other hand, action focused on environmental risks does not have a significant presence and even tends to passive actions. Therefore, it can be inferred that there is no internal risk culture among the residents of Tehran and there is no risk discourse in their minds and actions. In the end, the paradigmatic model of perceptual and cognitive retardation of urban dwellers from environmental risks in Tehran has been drawn and interpreted.