Investigating Effects of Cultural Activities of Rural Municipalities on Environmental Behaviors in the Villages of West Gilan (Set of rural areas of Tavalesh)

This qualitative research has been conducted with the purpose of investigating the environmental culturalization activities of the residents in set of Tavalesh villages in the west of Gilan.The study population includes 43 villagers who were selected by purposive sampling method and were subjected to semi-structured interviews.Data were analyzed based on directed deductive qualitative content analysis.The credibility of the findings of this research was obtained by two methods of selective credibility and credibility evaluation by communication method. Based on the concept of "Environmental Culturalization" as a modified concept extracted from Inglehart's theory of material/post-material values, 6 categories, 8 subcategories and 10 codes were extracted and analyzed. The findings showed that the main activities of rural municipalities were focused on waste management and limited training on waste separation from the source. The environmental activities of the rural municipalities are limited and temporary and their participation is a type of showoff and symbolic.In addition, in this area, the participation of the villagers has also been insignificant. In fact, the results indicate that rural municipalities, as executive management at the village level, has not been successful in the environmental culturalization of the villagers. The theoretical proposition resulting from the sum of the findings of this study is compiled as follows: "In rural areas, a set of socio-structural barriers; that is, organizational, economic-infrastructural and cognitive-cultural along with the geographical location of the villages are known as the major challenges of the rural municipality institution to promote the culture of environmental protection.