Residents Desire to Stay in a Place: Evidences from Iran’s New Towns

The policy of creating new towns in developing countries like Iran has been implemented to provide housing, reduce high migration rates to major metropolises and be incorporated within regional developmental policies. These new towns in Iran, however, face some problems. One of the most important challenges these towns deal with is that unwillingness of the residents to stay there after the improvement of their economic situations. Urban planners cite various reasons for this phenomenon, including the excessive dependence of these towns on metropolises and low quality urban services and facilities. However, the low level of residents’ social capital accounts for one of the main factors for reduced place attachment and desire to stay in a place. This research studies the relation between the three concepts of social capital, place satisfaction and place attachment and their effects on residents’ desire to stay in a new town. The investigation was completed using structural equation models and confirmatory factor analysis. The model was tested on a sample of 383 residents of Andishe New Town, located 30 kilometers west of Tehran. The findings reveal that the indicators of social capital directly affect place satisfaction and place attachment. These three indicators explain the desire to stay in a new town. Therefore, this model provides a conceptual framework for research on social capital, place satisfaction and place attachment. Social development strategies can also be used as a planning tool to enhance place attachment and population stabilization in new towns. Therefore, apart from improving the objective conditions of the environment, social capital and place attachment can be effective factors for the population stabilization strategy.