Image of a Neighborhood; a Hesitation on the Role and Impact of Neighborhood Involvement Sense in Promoting Social Participation (Case Study: Kuti Neighborhood of Bushehr)

Participation of people in their cities and neighborhoods has always been emphasized by researchers and experts in order to improve the quality of citizens’ life and having efficient urban management. However, it seems that providing participation contexts at local level by citizens needs preparations and substrates that facilitate participation. In the meantime, establishing a neighborhood management plan in order to provide participation contexts at local level by citizens can be considered as a movement in this regard. Accordingly, the purpose of the present research is to evaluate the relationship between neighborhood involvement sense and social participation of citizens. In this regard, Kuti neighborhood of Bushehr, which has valuable activity, physical, and social features, is investigated as a sample. In the present research, the research method is operational based on the purpose and descriptive-analytical and experimental-surveying based on the method. Thus, library studies have been used to explain literature and history of the research subject, and field methods have been used to collect data according to the nature of the research. The data were collected by a questionnaire among 60 residents of the Kuti neighborhood who were over 18 years old. The sampling method, used in this study, was random and SPSS software was used for data analysis. The results of this research indicate that there is a relationship between neighborhood involvement sense and preparation for participation. The correlation between these two variables was in the positive direction. In addition, by increasing the neighborhood involvement sense, the preparation for participation increases.