Authors:
Professor Ali Reza Kaldi,
University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation
Soheila Ebrahimpour, M.A.

Correspondence:
Ali Reza Kaldi,
Email: arkaldi@yahoo.com

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INTRODUCTION

The history of participation is as old as Human History, because participation exists in the heart of every society, and is defined as correlation, union, association, coordination, and so on. Since long ago, it was the cause of origination of social life and human recognition of human kind (1).
Most people believe that many problems and difficulties that cities are facing, are resolvable. Social participation covers all kinds of individual and group actions in order to participate in the fate of the community, and effect decisions about public affairs (2).

Some of the main effects of participation are as follows :

1- It makes it easy to hear the other's voice.
2- It breaks the culture of silence.
3- It rectifies the problem regarding lack of investment, money and manpower (3).

Since the beginning of decade 1950, developing programs based on ideas of renovation was defeated, and the definition of participation and cooperational developments were discussed in the literature of development. In this way, participation in politics and in activities of the social organizations , is considered the duty of an active fellow citizen, not a means to fulfill the requirements, personal interests or making benefits. The programs which look to the subject of participation with such assumptions, mainly have the following specialties:

A- They are being done with collaboration and cooperation of the main benefiters, meaning the People.
B- They hand over the power of decision making and programming to the benefiters.
C- They cause people to increase their knowledge and abilities.
D- They help the main benefiters to criticize ideas about present situations, with respect to thoughts of others.
E- They put positive effects on confidence and they create social assets.
F- They cause development and they deepen the channels of social relationships (4).

Participation is a branch of Democracy and it forms between the frames of citizens relationships and the government and relation of power in the society. At the end of decade 1969, the subject of participation was paid attention to by decision makers and decision holders as an essential matter in the development of communities.

Arnestein (5) was one of the first people to apply citizen participation, with interpretation of power of citizens and to explain that he used the " ladder of participation ". At the end of decade 1970, the World Health Organization introduced the phrase " citizen cooperation " for the first time in the subject of hygienic first aids. In documents of the United Nations organization, in decade 1980 , people's participation is defined as follows :

" To create opportunities for increasing abilities of all members of a society for active participation, to effect procedures of development and to take fair shares out of development benefits (6). In 1996, the plan of "Citizen's Participation" was submitted by the conference of United Nations, to make homes for people, named as " Plan for participation of the people in city affairs " as one of the effective plans in development of life in the cities (7).

Some researchers also believe that public participation means to take decisions by the aiming groups, people benefiting group and the groups which used democratic methods and move towards the direction of public benefits (8).

In dictionaries, city programming is defined as the public participation in constructing the city. The equipment in which the members of the society would be able to obtain the plans and politics that effects their vital environments (9).

Participation is the mental and sentimental engagement of people in group situations, in what activates them to help each other in reaching their own group aims and share the responsibilities of jobs. In this definition, there are 3 important elements: engagement , assistance , and responsibility (10).

Participation as a behavior of a group requires certain limits of organizing. The existence of mediating social groups like trade groups, local groups , cooperatives , local committees and so on, prepares the grounds for development of participation (11).

Generally speaking, the shape of participation is dependent upon protecting goals by the producers of a program. There may be a discrepancy between the aims of decision makers and the aims of original participators. To make participation successful, designers, first select the official aims, then they find out the aims of citizens to achieve them, so that the people are encouraged in participation. The main problem in designing the cooperational plan, is the limitations of liabilities that has to be given to the citizens (5).

Alvin Toffler also in the Third Wave, predicted 3 essential factors for future governments. One of these factors is the disappearance of too many decision making centers and handing them over to the people themselves (12).

The meaning of cooperation has been paid attention by the thoughtful people in the fields of social science. In fact, even the scientists and social philosophers of the 17th and 18th centuries, such as Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Hobbes , Montesquieu and others, also paid attention to this matter.
Basics of work performance ideology is the fact that the survival of all the traditions, relations and social associations, depends upon the work or duties that they do in the social system, meaning all of them (13).

Participation is dependent upon the changes and basic movements and emphasis on social relationships, construction of power and level positioning of the social system at national and local levels (14).

Arnestein tried to make the meaning of participation clear by using citizen's " ladder of participation ". At the lowest level of the ladder, Arnestein does not consider any power in citizens.

The story of success means that for all activities people do, it is usually like, every action of a person if it is rewarded, the possibility of it's reoccurrence by the same person will be increased (15).

The result of research in investigation of backgrounds and straits of citizen's social - economical participation in city management in Tabriz city shows that, the parameters of information and satisfaction have an important role in social and economic participation of the people in Tabriz (16). Other research named " investigation for recognition of society's level of citizen's social participation in activities of the Tehran municipality and it's effect on city management " shows that there is a relation between the feeling of being powerless and participation (17).

Also in research called "investigations into the ways of attracting people's participation in management of city of Khoramabad , in investigation of average answers, most belonged to participation of the people in elections of town committee members with an average of 7.17 and the least belonged to the payment of city dues with an average of 5.22 (18).

In other research named " investigation in effects of performing participation of helping committees in suburbs of Tehran , on Tehran citizen's cooperation with city management ", it was clear that helping committees in suburbs of Tehran, despite its inability in finding its position between all citizens, was effective in the formation of backgrounds for people of Tehran cooperation (19).

One item of research shows that methods of people's participation in city programming systems of the country, and methods of suggesting participation, can reduce centralization in city programming systems of the country and hands over the responsibilities of the programming to the local associations, especially the municipalities and Islamic committees with the help of people's protection and coordination with non-governmental organizations (20).

Research named "The social participation of citizens in Iran" shows that 60.6 % of tendencies are positive, 27.2 % of them are neutral and 12.2 % have negative tendencies toward participation. It also emphasizes that the tendencies of the majority of the citizens in lieu of participation, are positive and it only needs some practical background preparation (21).

Research named " investigation of views of the citizens in participation in city management: A study in region 7 of the city of Tehran", showed that participation of women is higher than men, the youth more than elderly people, singles more than couples, and older residents of the region, more than newcomers. Also there is a meaningful relationship between the imagination of someone out of his performance (political and social confidence ) and amount of his participation (22).

In investigation of effective elements in social cooperation between the citizens more than 18 years of age and over in Tehran's 22 regions , the findings show that availability of facilities, educational opportunities, acceptance of value of cooperation as an internal affair, choosing of things worthy in life to get the amount of knowledge of people for participation and assessment of objections that exist in the society, can affect the social participation of the people (23).

Research also has been performed, named 'regional participation in city management which gave suggestions regarding frames of cooperational developments and exceptional special studies in cities of the world, which at the end obtains participation for city management (24).

MATERIALS AND METHOD

This research is performed by method of survey. The statistical society in this research contains elderly people (over 60 years old ) in district no.10 in which according to the census of 2006 are 30,609 persons. The sample in this research is 379, and to obtain the sample, the Cochrane formula is used.

Sampling is done randomly. The main equipment for collecting data in this research is the questionnaire. The questionnaire forms are distributed to the elderly people in all parts of the region.
Participation means to have shares in something and having its benefits or participating in a group and therefore cooperating with it.

To assess this parameter the following phrases were used:
Participation and coordination in essential or constructive plans, such as separation of paper trash from plastic and other trash, snow sweeping from the streets and footpaths , garbage collection at certain times, coordination and cooperation in keeping the footpaths,/ brooks and streams, payment of municipality charges, management of animal and insect pests, putting efforts and coordination into the maintenance of green spaces and gardens, and participating in the city's committee elections.
The judgment of the people in relation to their abilities for achieving their plans, is called "Self-effectiveness".

What is meant by self effectiveness, is the personal beliefs about the abilities of a person in organizing and performing courses of actions required to manage the situations that may happen in the future. To assess this parameter the following phrases are used : You can do everything if you want to. Loss is the beginning of victory. When I want to learn something new, if I do not succeed from the beginning, I leave it immediately. You have to be sober and strong when facing accidents. I believe in my abilities in doing the jobs. I am self sufficient. I do not surrender easily. When I decide to do something, I concentrate on that job seriously and precisely.

Being powerless , is the " beliefs and views of a person about the ability of effecting government decisions, government organizations, powerful and influential groups in the society, basically lack of control on the course of events effecting the fate of the person (2).

Being powerless means the possibility or expectation of a person about the ineffectiveness of his/her actions or thinking that his/her behavior is not able to reach and obtain the expected results, and his/her actions are not leading towards his/her goals.

To assess this parameter the following phrases were used:
The existing regulations in the municipality, discourages the cooperation of the citizens in management of the cities. In performing municipality projects, there are no values for people's ideas and suggestions. The city management system is acting in such a way that people do not have essential roles in management of the city. Some people ask, if the municipality's regulations are necessary and still it is not protected by sanctions. Even if I believe that my knowledge and skills are sufficient, I find it useless to participate in group activities regarding public comforts and solving public difficulties.

Benevolence, is the assessment of a person regarding negative or positive results and consequences of cooperating or not cooperating(10). To assess this parameter, the following phrases were used:
Since the municipalities do not notice the requirements and problems of the citizens, the raising of problems by the people is useless. Cooperation with the municipality causes development in the municipality's services. In the opinion of some people, cooperation with municipality causes identification of the city's requirements and therefore brings about their rectification. In the opinion of some of the citizens, municipality charges and congestion dues are spent correctly and citizens see their results. Some say, municipalities avoid doing activities which do not have any benefit or advertising effect for them. In the opinion of some people, the invitation of people to cooperate by the municipalities, are more like to have motto effect than practical effect. It seems that income given to the municipalities by the citizens is entirely spent for development and rectifying city problems. Some people believe that the construction permit and congestion due charges, more than being useful to the people are useful to the municipalities. It seems that a large city like Tehran has such expenses that the municipality itself cannot compensate it with dues and other charge payments by the people.

Information and knowledge about city affairs: This refers to quantity and quality of information that an active citizen should have. To assess this parameter the following phrases were used: How many suggestions did you submit to the municipality by use of telephone number 137 which is specialized for suggestions to the municipality? How many times did you submit your criticism by the use of telephone number 1888, which is specialized for criticism? How much are you aware of activities of the local committee? How much are you aware of the duties of the city committee?

Trust means to believe and be assured about the rightness, truthfulness, reliance, and justice of a person, group or a society in general. To assess this parameter the following phrases were used:
As a citizen, I trust the working steps of the municipality. Some citizens say, there is no necessary equipment for controlling the municipality and its personnel or they are very weak. Some others believe that, there is too much wastage of money and incorrect usage of treasury in the municipality. The information that municipality submits about how it acts, is precise. It seems that municipality acts correctly regarding it's liabilities, therefore the important jobs should be handed over to municipalities.
In this investigation, to ensure about the reliability of the measuring tools, the Visual Credit method was used. In the present research, for the sake of measurements, after obtaining the introducers, the method of "exam - repeat the exam" was used. To do this, in the basic steps, 40 questionnaires were investigated through investigating their information by the software SPSS ; the correlation introducer was assessed by examination of alpha Cronbach. The results showed that correlation of 0.92 is the element of social participation for elderly people. Therefore it can be announced that the designed questionnaire acted satisfactorily.

RESULTS

The received data was analyzed in 2 sections, by methods of descriptive and inferential statistics. In the section of descriptive statistics, we describe the data in 2 parts :
1- characteristics of the participants
2- The views of the participants .

In the section of the test of hypotheses, the association between the independent and dependent parameters are discussed.

In this research, 62 % of the participants are gentlemen and 38 % of them are women. 75.2 % of the participants were aged 60-64, 14.8 % of them aged 65-69, 5.8 % of them aged 70-74, 3.7% of them aged 75-79, and 0.8 % of them are aged more than 80 years old.

31.7 % of the participants have no Diploma, 36.1 % have Diploma, 11.3 % have Upper Diploma, 18.5 % have B.A., and 2.4% are the holders of M.A. and above. 33.8 % of the participants are retired, 7.7% are jobless, 33.2 % are employed and 25.3 % of them are householders. 19 % of the participants are 0-5 years old in their place, 26.1 % of them are 6-10 years, 18.5 % of them are 11-20 years and 36.4 % of them are 21 years old in their residential place.

In this research the cooperation of the participants are: 5.5 % low , 58.6 % middle and 35.9 % high. Also in this research, 20.3 % of the participants have low powerlessness, 76.5% have medium powerlessness and 3.2 % of them are high powerlessness. The self effectiveness of the participants are: 16.6 % low, 39.8 % medium and 42 % high and 1.6% of them did not answer. The degree of trust of the participants was 24% low, 63.3 % medium and 12.4 % high, and 0.3 of them did not answer. The profitability of the participants were 9.5 % low, 78.9 % medium and 8.2 % high, also 3.4 % of them did not answer. The level of knowledge of the participants were 53.3 % low, 38.8 % medium and 7.4 % high, also 0.5 % of them did not answer. In order to assess the parameters of research and after that to investigate the theories, one of the tests used is the Coefficient of Correlation of Pearson , because the level of assessment of research parameters is at distant level.

On this basis, it was tried to use the test for investigation of relations between the independent and dependant parameters of the research, as follows:

Table 1 : Correlation between the level of participation and independent

As is shown in Table 1 , increase in profitability causes increase in amount of participation. The less the sense of being powerless, the is higher the amount of participation. The more self-effectiveness, the higher is the amount of participation. The more Knowledge of city affairs, the higher is the rate of participation. The higher the social trust, the higher the level of participation.

Table 2 : Correlation between duration of residency, level of education , age and amount of participation

There is no meaningful relationship between the duration of residency and participation. The higher the level of education, the higher the level of participation. Also there is no meaningful relationship between age and the level of participation.

We take the advantage of T test for investigation between sex and amount of participation. The amount of T test is 20.9 % and Level of Significance 0.000, shows that the tendency of the men is higher than women, in cooperation.

Table 3 : The result of regression analysis in parameters affecting social participation of elderly people

Self effectiveness is a parameter which entered the equation, and with respect to amount of t = 7.43 and level of significance of 0.000, it has a direct effect on dependent parameter (social participation ).

Knowledge is another parameter, which entered the equation and with respect to amount of t = 3.79 and level of significance of 0.000, it has a direct effect on dependent variable (social participation ).

CONCLUSION

The findings of the research show that between social trust and amount of social participation, there is a meaningful relationship. Trust and trusting somebody, is one of the definitions and important social factors in society. As a result, the higher the trust of the elderly people in the municipalities, the more is their participation in management of the city affairs.

The findings of the research show that between the self-effectiveness and amount of social participation there is a meaningful relationship. What we mean by Self-effectiveness, is the comprehension and belief in someone about his/her own abilities. The feeling of Self- effectiveness, includes subjects such as Tendency to commence a behavior, Tendency to complete a behavior, Insist in case of failure. People who feel they have the ability to perform a job, show more tendency for group activities and jobs. As a result those old people who believe that, in spite of their high age , they can still do something about the subjects around their life or even in their city, or take any responsibility or give any ideas and suggestions, can increase the amount of their cooperation in management of city affairs.

Between the feeling of being powerless and amount of participation, there is a meaningful relationship. The feeling of being powerless, is the belief of a person that his/her actions do not have any effects on influencing the directions of social events and this would cause the person to stop doing that action. In the present research, the subjected action is the same as social participation. As a result those who feel being less powerless, and believe that their actions affect social events, have increased their amounts of participation. On the contrary, the more citizens being powerless against the rules and regulations of the municipalities, the less is their participation in the city affairs.
The findings of the research show that between the personal characteristics, middle age and amount of social participation, there is no meaningful relationship. But between the parameter of level of education and the social participation, there is a meaningful relationship and the higher the level of education in one person, the more is his/her amount of social participation. Between parameters of gender and amount of participation, there is a meaningful relationship and men have a higher tendency of participation.

The findings showed that between the effective parameters on social participation of the old people in management of city affairs, having knowledge and awareness of city affairs and self- effectiveness have greater effects in comparison to other parameters.

Research in the year 2007, named " Investigation of society recognition on amount of citizen's social participation in Tehran municipal activities and it's affect on management of city affairs " in limitations of region 9 of the Tehran municipality, the result of theories subjected in that research and the present research are matching. But in research in 2007, the theory of : ( there is a relationship between the profitability and amount of participation ) was not confirmed, whereas in the present research, it is confirmed. That may be because of the difference in statistical societies between these two bodies of research. Therefore, the greater the profitability of old people in participation affairs, the higher is the amount of their participation.

In the year 2000 there was research named "The social participation of the citizens in Iran". In that research there is no relation between the parameter of knowledge and participation, but in the present research, there is a meaningful relationship between these two parameters. It means that old people do participate if they are aware of the city affairs. In this research, women have a greater tendency toward cooperation, but in the present research, men have a greater tendency in participation. In this research there is no relation between the parameter of education and the amount of participation, but in the present research between these two parameters there are meaningful relationships. The higher the education of elderly people, the greater is their tendency toward participation.

In the year 2000, there was research named "investigation of the views of the citizens in region 7 of Tehran about the participation in the city management". In this research there is a relationship between the duration of residency and the amount of participation, but in the present research there is no relation between them. The result of this research showed that the participation of women is higher than men, but in the present research the men's participation is higher.

SUGGESTIONS

With regard to what was detailed in the subjected research, the following suggestions are pronounced:

1- It is suggested that for more participation of the people, the financial and spiritual results of their participation need to be guaranteed. Maybe one of the reasons for people's presence is that they can see the results.

2- Endeavour and efforts to make the citizens trust the municipality by avoiding wastage of capital, submitting précised information about works being done by the municipality, execution of plans to the citizens through different methods ( Radio, Television, Newspapers, ) and serious and précised supervision of municipal personnel .

3- Performing continuous referendums from citizens during execution of plans and generally during decision-making for the city.

4- Increase in the capacity of citizen's participation about municipal regulations and also municipal actions.

5- Development of educational, cultural, and advertising activities for identification of the meaning of cooperation, its dimensions and importance and announcing the benefits of cooperation with the use of successful examples on the national and international levels.

Formation and development of people's participation in different city affairs, needs training, cultural and job development in the society and the aim of the training for making strong roots in cooperation, should be foremost in people's mind in the necessitation of participation in their own affairs.

6- Submitting information and awareness about the actions and duties of the municipality, city committee , local helping committee , projects and plan, to the citizens.

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