SPACE ECONOMY & RURAL DEVELOPMENT

A qualitative analysis of the fields of creation, connection and effects of the lack of livelihood capital in creating security instability in rural border areas of Marivan County

Saadi Mohammadi

Introduction
Quality of life is core to the sustainable security approach. Regarding that, the status of supply and access to livelihood capital to provide livelihood and quality of life for villagers have an undeniable role in moving towards the stability of the security of rural border areas. The rural border areas of Marivan are in an adverse situation in terms of access to livelihood assets. Livelihood poverty due to poor access to livelihood assets is the dominant feature of the border village areas of Marivan County. This situation is evident in the unemployment report of the management and planning organization of the province, where the highest unemployment rate of the province is related to Marivan County, with 28.6 percent. Although Marivan County is in third place in the province after Sanandaj and Saqz counties in terms of population (12.2% of the province's population), it includes 23.6% of the unemployed in the entire province. The number of unemployed people in the rural areas of Marivan is 3446, with a rate of 19.3%. Compared to the unemployment rate of the rural areas of other counties of the province, it has the highest unemployment rate. Due to being in the political and geopolitical stake, a lot of money and capital is spent to keep the security of this county. According to the principles of stable security, identifying and solving the trends leading to insecurity are significant. So instead of dealing with threats, the emergence of insecurity is prevented by controlling these trends. The current research discusses why the inappropriate situation of access to livelihood assets in the border rural areas of the region was created and continued and what instabilities and risks did it leave behind?

Methodology
The present applied research has been carried out using a post-event descriptive method. The research is qualitative, in essence. Data were collected by targeted interviews. The three main questions of the research are the destabilizing effects of security, the causes and factors of occurrence and continuity, and the strategies adopted by villagers against inappropriate access to livelihood capitals. The research population includes specialists, experts and informants in security and law enforcement, academics and management of the county, who were determined using a targeted non-probability sampling method based on the snowball method, and their number reached 50 people. The analysis of the interviews was done with the grounded theory technique in three stages open coding, central coding and selective coding.
The spatial scope of the research is the border villages of Marivan County. A county that is located in the west of Kurdistan Province and is adjacent to the Kurdistan region of Iraq. These border villages are within Sarshio, Khavomirabad and Zrivar Districts, which are the closest to the borderline (less than 15 kilometres from the border). The location and target villages of the research were considered (10 villages).

Discussion and conclusion
The creation of livelihood poverty due to the lack of provision and proper access of border villagers to livelihood assets has caused a variety of security instabilities. Many of the identified concepts, or in other words, the adverse effects resulting from the lack of adequate provision and access to livelihood assets, are the result and effects of weakening and failure in other dimensions and security indicators. The lack of adequate provision and access to livelihood assets in the studied areas, in addition to direct effects (destruction of the natural environment, poverty, human and financial losses), has also had many indirect and dependent effects (creating security holes with Distance between the people and the system due to the feeling of injustice caused by the government's lack of attention to these areas with the continuation of human and financial losses, environmental crises, the continuation of smuggling, increase in immigration, etc.). On the other hand, the instability and security problems created are not only limited to these areas and have threatened the national and public security of the country as well.
The most important strategies adopted for security and development in order to deal with the poor livelihood and security situation include border blocking strategy and threat-oriented management, one-dimensional development management strategy, extreme exploitation of the natural environment and dealing with illegal jobs and smuggling, immigration and capital outflow from the borders. However, there needs to be a structural solution to the problem at the regional level. Therefore, defensive strategies have generally been used to prevent the deterioration of the existing situation.
Also, using the grounded theory technique (three stages of open, central and selective coding), it was found that there are many obstacles and problems related to development and security managers and local communities for the business environment or the lack of access to livelihood assets in the studied border rural areas.
The results showed that the lack of proper access of the border villages of the county to livelihood assets had caused the instability of security in its various fields in the studied area. The security instabilities were placed in 51 indicators in the form of 3 main categories: unstable security future and political-military problems, instability of food and environmental-physical security, and instability of economic and social security. This situation showed that the lack of access to livelihood assets has reduced the quality of life and, as a result, security instability in the border villages of Marivan County.
Also, the results of the grounded theory technique extracted 63 weaknesses. These weaknesses are grouped into components such as weak development planning, policy-making and management, the inappropriateness of the business environment of the region, border security management, weak laws and protections, weakness in the physical infrastructure needed for economic development, the lack of local people's capital and socio-cultural weaknesses.
Finally, the results of interviews and field observation showed that the strategy of blocking borders and threat-oriented management, one-dimensional development management, extreme exploitation of the natural environment, and dealing with illegal jobs and smuggling, migration and departure capital from borders; The most important strategies adopted by development and security officials and villagers in dealing with the unfavorable situation of access to livelihood assets and security instabilities resulting from it.

Identify factors affecting the success of rural production cooperatives in Lorestan Province

Moslem Savari

Introduction
Rural production cooperatives in the world have more than 250 million members, which have created many successes in the world agricultural sector in the countries of Kenya, Uganda, Israel and Germany, where 32% of the global market share of the agricultural sector belongs to cooperatives. In this regard, rural production cooperatives are considered an effective factor in the agricultural sector. Considering the fact that every cooperative is born to achieve specific goals.
Cooperative companies play a role in the fields of economic growth, poverty alleviation, productive employment, social integration, strengthening entrepreneurship and management and concentration of small capitals in the form of medium and large capitals, and as one of the newest ways. Therefore, sustainable development is prominent in the country's development plans. Rural production cooperatives are one of the most effective networks at the village level that directly serve farmers and rural masses and play an important role in realizing the country's grand plans. Therefore, the success of cooperatives can make their role in rural development more colorful. This research was conducted after identifying the success factors of production cooperatives in rural areas of Lorestan province based on the EFQM model.

Methodology
The statistical population of this research includes the members of active rural production cooperatives in Lorestan province, which are 2602 people in 7 rural production cooperatives in four cities of Duroud, Borujerd, Khorram Abad and Aligudarz, in 41 villages. 335 people were selected by random sampling using Morgan's Krejci table. Data analysis was done with SPSS20 software.

Discussion and conclusion
The findings showed that among the EFQM factors (leadership, policy and strategy, employees, partnership and resources, processes, customer results, employee results, community results and key performance results), leadership criteria, policy and strategy, employees, partnership and resources, employee results, community results, key performance results have a positive and significant effect on the success of cooperatives, which are able to explain 60.3% of the variance of the dependent variable.

Analysis of obstacles to the rural environment sustainability with an emphasis on economic and management contexts: A Grounded Theory (Case study: Tavalesh villages)

Sadegh Salehi

Introduction
Rural environmental protection has received increasing attention in recent years. The main issues include environmental pollution, land degradation, resource depletion, biodiversity loss, income loss, and public health risks. These issues are particularly acute in villages and remote regions of developing countries. Rural areas often lack the required resources to take needed action to protect the environment. Moreover, many management strategies associated with centralized and urban regions are unsuitable for implementation in rural areas. Although human interventions could degrade ecosystem sustainability, appropriate management could preserve the sustainability of rural ecosystems. The reverse of this case is also true. That is, inadequate management protection of natural resources also causes widespread destruction. Iran's environment, especially in rural areas, is as same as other countries, and in some cases, the factors of environmental degradation have expanded.
Various natural resources, such as water, forest land, pasture and mountains, are unique features of the villages in Gilan Province. However, the destruction of nature is also increasing as an environmental threat.
In the meantime, some degradation happened in the environment of the villages in the west of Gilan (Tavalesh), which are located between the shores of the Caspian Sea and the Talash mountain range and are mainly scattered in four mountainous, foothill, plain and coastal areas. It seems that the destructive state of the natural environment is mainly caused by destructive human behavior. Moreover, these behaviors occur in a context. Therefore, the primary contexts and conditions of occurrence of these destructive behaviors and their causes should be analyzed and investigated.
A deep understanding of economic-management mechanisms of the formation and expansion of environmental issues in rural society is vital for the researcher to enter the research field.
The main question of the study is what are the economic-management contexts affecting the formation of environmental problems in the studied rural community? According to the grounded theory method, the sub-questions are: What economic and management factors have formed the environmental problems in society? What are the central phenomena of environmental issues? What are the strategies for overcoming environmental problems? Moreover, what are the consequences of these strategies for society?

Methodology
In this qualitative research, grounded theory and the systematic approach of Strauss and Corbin were used. The study population consisted of experts and officials in natural resources and watershed management, agricultural jahad management, environmental protection organization, village council, rural municipality and villagers. Thirty-five people were selected by purposive sampling. Data were collected by a semi-structured interview and analyzed by using a coding technique. First, based on open coding, the main concepts of the research were obtained. In axial coding, by referring again to the text of the interviews, the factors affecting the environmental problems were identified and extracted from the interviewees' point of view. Then the main categories were obtained by merging one or more component categories. Finally, selective coding was done to integrate and refine the data to discover the main phenomenon and draw a paradigm model. The validity and reliability were evaluated based on control or validation by the participants.

Discussion and conclusion
Based on open coding, four main concepts of "unstable income", "unemployment", "production stagnation", and "denaturalization" as economic contexts and three concepts of "bad organization", "lack of specialization", and "mismanagement" as contexts for mismanagement creating environmental problems was extracted.
The main phenomenon is "environmental destruction and ecosystem instability". The background conditions are "natural situation, economic shortcomings and management challenges". The causal conditions affecting environmental destruction and ecosystem change are: "single-product economy", "organizational and managerial inefficiency", "organizational divergence", "dependent livelihood", and "unemployment". Furthermore, intervening conditions were identified as organizational involvement, lack of expert force, land sale, small ownership and small industries. Interactive strategies include: managerial integration, reforming human resources, defining alternative livelihoods, training appropriate to livelihoods, syndicating rural productions, revising national land laws, and determining national and personal land boundaries with the correct implementation of the Cadastre plan.
In rural areas, the natural situation, economic shortcomings and management challenges affect environmental degradation and ecosystem instability. The more the villagers have diverse natural resources and more access to natural resources, the greater their desire to use nature to generate income. In rural areas, the predominance of the single-product economy increases livelihood dependence on natural resources. The inefficiency and supervisory weakness of the responsible and custodian organizations, which is often represented in the form of organizational divergence, facilitates the process of environmental destruction.
Finally, the final statement from the paradigm model is that in rural areas, a set of economic-management factors affects environmental degradation and ecosystem instability. Environmental degradation and ecosystem instability appear in the context of the convergence of economic and management fields. This way, the "environmental multi-causal convergence" theoretical model was conceptualized.

Gender analysis of factors affecting the success of rural entrepreneurship with an emphasis on women's perspective (case study: villages of Amirabad districts of Damghan county)

Ali Akbar Taghipour

Introduction
Nowadays, systems of society, including social and economic systems, change so fast that they require appropriate actions and strategies to satisfy their needs. Entrepreneurship is one of the strategies proposed in response to new needs. Rural settlements play an essential role in all aspects of society. These settlements contain a significant percentage of the population and are essential to national development. However, these places are known to have problems such as unemployment, low income, and lack of diversity in occupation. According to many researchers, entrepreneurship is an essential tool for rural development and can be a suitable stimulus for the stagnant situation of three sectors of agriculture, services and industry. However, the fact that entrepreneurship programs are male-oriented is a big problem that has caused human resources and society's capacity not to be used properly. As half of the society's population, women have a prominent role in various elements of society, but the existing policies and plans prevent their presence and development. Gender analysis is a way to achieve gender balance in all aspects of society, and it examines and compares the attitudes and views of men and women on various issues. In the present research, an attempt is made to evaluate the views of women and men of Amirabad District of Damghan County regarding the effect of five components: individual, family, economic, cultural-social and institutional infrastructure in the success of entrepreneurship.

Methodology
The current research is an applied study, which in terms of its nature, is in the category of descriptive-analytical research. The method of collecting documentary information is a survey; In the first step, with library studies, an effort was made to extract the components needed for the questionnaire while developing the theoretical framework of the research. The questionnaire was prepared in 17 indicators and 41 items among 379 residents of Ghahab Rastaq, Ghahab Sarsar and Toyeh Darwar districts in Amirabad District of Damghan County, which was calculated using the Cochran method with a confidence coefficient of 95%. It was distributed in the spring of 1401. After completing the questionnaires, they were collected and analyzed using SPSS software; Pearson's correlation test and independent T-test are two statistical tests that were used to measure the correlation between variables and gender analysis of entrepreneurship development indicators, respectively.

Discussion and conclusion
Using the Pearson correlation test to measure the degree of correlation between the variables indicates a significant relationship between the indicators of entrepreneurship development and the success resulting from it, based on the respondents' opinions. However, the low weighted average of them causes the significance of the relationship to be moderate. The obtained results show that the highest correlation rate among men is the individual index, with a correlation rate of 0.552, and the family indices (r=0.519), cultural-social (r=0.495), and economic indices (r=0.476), respectively. Moreover, infrastructural-institutional (r=0.471) is in the following ranks. Among women, the highest correlation value, like men, is related to the "individual" index with a value of 0.473, and infrastructure-institutional (r= 0.469), economic (r= 0.453), family (r= 0.440), and social indicators. - Cultural (r= 0.393) is in the next rank. Therefore, according to the obtained results, the first hypothesis of the research is rejected; In the first hypothesis, it was stated that "it seems that among the effective factors in the development of entrepreneurship, economic factors have more influence from the point of view of women", the results of the Pearson test indicated that the economic index with the value of r=0.453 It is in the third place of indicators in terms of women. On the other hand, according to the above results, the second hypothesis of the research is confirmed because the factors of the five indicators of the research do not have the same priority from the point of view of men and women, and each of the gender groups has a different point of view towards Indicators are essential.
The results of the independent T-test indicate that in the "individual" index, the most important item for women's success in entrepreneurship is "having commitment" and for men, "risk tolerance". In the "family" index, women's "family attitude" and men's "having freedom of action on behalf of the family" were evaluated as the most critical items. In the "economic" index, in terms of both sex groups, "income from entrepreneurship"; In the "social-cultural" index, from the point of view of women, "the type of culture in the place of residence" and from the point of view of men, "women's participation"; In the institutional-infrastructural index, "giving land to entrepreneurs" was evaluated as the most important issue for both sex groups.
This research attempted to measure the difference between men's and women's views on success factors in entrepreneurship. The obtained results indicated that women and men have completely different views on success factors in entrepreneurship; Although men and women considered the "individual" factor to be the most important factor, there was no consensus among them regarding the order of the components of this factor. According to women, "having a commitment" is the most important feature that must exist in the personality of an entrepreneur in order to provide the basis for his success; On the other hand, men consider "risk-taking" to be the most important characteristic of a successful entrepreneur. In general, women believed that individual, infrastructural-institutional, economic, family, and socio-cultural factors have the greatest impact on entrepreneurial success; Men also considered individual, family, cultural-social, economic, infrastructural-institutional as important. The research results indicate a significant difference between the attitudes of women and men; This requires that this difference be taken into account in relevant decisions and planning so that proper improvement and development in entrepreneurship can occur among all social groups.

Investigating the impact of covid-19 on the economy of tourism destination villages(Case Study: Kalat-Naderi County)

Maryam Ghasemi

Introduction
In rural areas, Covid-19 has, directly and indirectly, affected all aspects of rural society in the medium and short term. Thus, the economy of the tourist destination villages of Kalat county, which has a lot of dependence on tourism, has faced a severe recession due to the impact of Covid-19 and has been severely damaged. In general, based on the initial exploratory studies of the economy, these tourist destinations have faced the following problems:
A) Decrease in tourism demand: Due to the impact of Covid-19, the number of tourists entering the rural tourism destinations of Kalat county has decreased significantly. The average annual number of tourists in Ortakand village has decreased from 200 thousand people to 10 thousand people, in Baba Ramzan village from 20 thousand people to 4 thousand people, and in Abgarm village, from 40 thousand people to less than 20 thousand people after the outbreak of Covid-19 which has created many problems for the economy of these villages.
B) Decrease in the income of the tourism sector: Due to the decrease in tourism demand, we are witnessing a decrease in money coming to tourism destinations and a decrease in the direct and indirect income of activists of the tourism market in the villages of tourism destinations, so that in the village of Ortakand, the income of those working in the tourism sector has decreased by about 90%. Before Covid-19, the people of this village earned money by selling livestock, and agricultural and horticultural products, as well as through supermarkets and renting resorts to tourists. Also, before the outbreak of Covid-19 in Baba Ramzan village, 90% of dairy products, 80% of handicraft products of the villagers, as well as other products of the village such as gardens, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, medicinal plants and rice were bought by tourists, but after the outbreak of Covid 19, The income that the people of this village earned from the sale of these products has decreased by 85-90 percent.
C) Increase in unemployment: The decrease in tourism demand has caused a decrease in job opportunities in tourism destinations and the unemployment of many tourism activists in rural areas. After covid-19, those villagers who have been active in the tourism sector, such as eco-tourism resorts, guest houses, renting beds and gazebos, selling agricultural, garden, livestock, dairy products etc., due to the lack of tourists, have faced unemployment. So 80% of people in Ortakand village, 30% in Baba Ramzan village and 20% in Abgarm village have become unemployed due to the spread of Covid-19.
D) Inefficiency of investments: After Covid-19, due to the decrease and absence of tourists, the investments that some people in these villages had made in the tourism sector, such as eco-tourism resorts, beds and gazebos, supermarkets, etc., which has often been by obtaining facilities, but has remained without returns, which, in addition to the problem of unemployment, has made it difficult for these people to repay these facilities.
According to these, the research question is raised as follows: To what extent has the spread of Covid 19 affected the economy of the tourism target villages of Kalat County?

Methodology
The research method is descriptive-analytical and of the type of applied-developmental research. In this study, eight tourism destination villages in Kalat Naderi County were identified and studied with the help of field and documentary studies. The impact of Covid-19 on the economy of tourism destination villages was quantified based on the Likert scale and under the three components of employment, investment and income with the help of 19 indicators. The research tool was completed with the help of 22 experts from tourism destination villages. The reliability of the questionnaire was evaluated using 19 indicators, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient was favorable with a value of 0.9.

Discussion and conclusion
With the spread of Covid-19, rural tourism destinations have faced many economic problems. Since these villages get a large part of their income from the tourism sector, they faced unemployment after the spread of Covid-19, and finally, the economy of these villages faced stagnation. According to the obtained results, it can be said that Covid-19 has had many negative effects on the economy of tourist villages. The results showed that the average impact of Covid-19 on the economy of tourist destination villages was 3.68 on the Likert scale. Also, the impact of Covid-19 on income, with an average of 3.8, is higher than on investment, with 3.54 and employment, with 3.53. Obviously, the income from the tourism sector has decreased greatly due to the sharp decrease in the number of tourists. Also, the average impact of Covid-19 on the economy of all the studied tourism target villages was higher than 3. Therefore, there is a significant difference between the average effects of Covid-19 on the economy of the studied villages after the outbreak of Covid-19 compared to before, and the average of the investigated variables has decreased significantly after Covid-19. So that in the villages of tourism destinations, there has been a decrease of 19,941 tourists per year compared to before the outbreak of Covid-19. This situation has caused an average decrease of 31 direct businesses and 44 indirect businesses active in tourism, 47 direct and 77 indirect employees and 1.5 eco-tourism resorts compared to before the outbreak of Covid-19 in each of the tourism destination villages.

A Sociological Study of Entrepreneurship and its influential Factors, Case Study: Bahar District of Hamedan, Iran

Meysam Mousaaei

Introduction
Entrepreneurship is a novel economic phenomenon that significantly influences countries’ economic development. Today, entrepreneurship plays a crucial role in market and competition economics. In other words, in dynamic economics, ideas, products, and services are constantly changing; it is where the entrepreneur introduces a new pattern to adapt to the changes. Therefore, on a larger scale and within a multi-lateral interaction, entrepreneurship plays a definitive role in our lives in the modern world. In this sense, rural entrepreneurship, defined as “entrepreneurial business, industrial, and agricultural activities in rural areas which can foster economic development to a great deal,” is introduced as a relatively new concept in dynamic economics. An entrepreneurial environment welcomes risks and opportunities and knows how to benefit from environmental resources. According to the existing literature, entrepreneurs constantly look for value potentials to discover and benefit from the significant values of positive external factors. Positive incidents or opportunities can create considerable profit for one’s business if one knows how to monetize them. These external factors include the natural resources available in entrepreneurs’ work environments. The study aims to introduce a platform to promote entrepreneurship and study factors that help it thrive. To this aim, Giddens’ Theory of Structuration, which introduces a complex structure to study how opportunities, in specific, and threats, in general, appear to an entrepreneur working on a system, was employed in this study. Entrepreneurial passion is developed through the interactions between people and opportunities. This study provides a platform to examine entrepreneurial opportunities in dire need of further investigation in the Bahar District of Hamedan, a province of Iran.

Methodology
This applied research follows a descriptive-analytical approach. This study was conducted using a survey research method. The statistical population included all the families who lived in the Bahar district of Hamedan. The Cochran formula was used to determine the sample size. The sample size was set at 384 households; however, to ensure the accuracy of the resulting data, it was increased to 450 households. The participants were asked to fill out the
questionnaire. Multi-stage cluster sampling was used to select the participants of the study. The participants were selected using the following process: first, the researchers acquired multiple maps of the housed areas. Then, to ensure the randomness of the participant selection, the researchers would choose each household randomly and interview the first person who showed up at the door, provided that he was 18 or older. SPSS was used to analyze the resulting data. The Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used to calculate the correlation between variables.

Discussion and conclusion
According to the analytical findings of this research, there was a positive and direct relationship between entrepreneurship and its four contributing factors social security, economic security, social trust, and hope for the future. The study results show potential individual and environmental resources in the Bahar district of Hamedan to support entrepreneurial activities and start new businesses. These individual and environmental resources predicted 0.21 of the changes associated with entrepreneurial activities, indicating that they help entrepreneurial activities and businesses thrive. In other words, creating environments where new businesses can easily grow and expand contributes to entrepreneurial activities greatly. Bahar District of Hamedan possesses relatively promising capacities which can boost social and economic development significantly if handled with proper thought and planning. The local and rural administrators have failed to create an environment conducive to the establishment of new businesses and financial development. They have mainly focused on the development of the well-being of the locals through housing. However, housing developments alone cannot lead to social and economic development in rural areas. Local administrators need to start planning for economic development by creating job opportunities for the locals. Since the Bahar district of Hamedan is one of the pathways to the Holy March of Karbala. It can bring about many opportunities for financial development for the locals through local markets, etc. The locals can sell their agricultural and handcrafted products in these markets and step on the path of entrepreneurship, ultimately leading to social and economic development. The development of rural businesses and entrepreneurial activities are two of the primary factors in rural entrepreneurship. Multiple factors contribute to rural entrepreneurship. That is why it is necessary to promote the factors supporting rural entrepreneurship in the Bahar district of Hamedan to sow the seeds of financial development in this region.

An analysis of the licensing system for heavy livestock as a pillar of rural economy, current and optimal states

Fatemeh Askari Bozayeh

Introduction
One of the most important and effective incentives for investment and improving the business environment is facilitating and expediting issuing of licenses. This process is so crucial that it has become the only component or at least one of the main components for international business environment assessments. Licensing procedures are also common in the agricultural sector, and due to important issues such as compliance with public health and environmental safety, it becomes more specific. Animal husbandry is a prosperous production activity in the agricultural sector and one of the important pillars of the rural economy. Like all of them, it needs a suitable platform to fulfil its assigned missions. The heavy livestock breeding license is issued according to the rules and regulations set in a book under the title of the Comprehensive Livestock Breeding System Law. Therefore, issuing heavy livestock licenses under a national project in Isfahan, Khorasan Razavi, Qom, Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and Gilan has been investigated to explain the current and suggest an optimal state.

Methodology
In order to identify the current state of the licensing process, pathology and analysis of its optimal state, the focus group qualitative research method was used. Focus group research is a method for collecting qualitative data. In this research, in order to achieve the intended purposes, five steps include collecting information on the current situation; formation of the working group of applicants; Forming a focus group of experts; discussing the issues raised and providing solutions by experts; And the final synthesis and drawing of the optimal chart has been completed. Also, for all responsible and provincial project researchers, a user code and password have been defined to search in the licensing system named Panjare Vahed, which is the basis of the analysis of this research. The Panjare Vahed system, now renamed Electronic Agricultural Licensing System (SAMAK), is designed to apply for and track the issuance of licenses in the agricultural sector. Visio 2013 software was used to draw licensing charts.

Discussion and conclusion
In order to obtain a heavy livestock license, three permits: Permission in Principle, Establishment Permit, and Operation Permit, are required, each of which has overlapping processes that cause many problems for the applicants. The results of the project indicate the chaotic situation of the licensing process and the absence of a single and coordination procedure in the province. According to the surveys carried out in the investigated provinces, the most critical factor in prolonging the licensing process is the multiplicity of decision-making centers and parallel inquiries and the absence of online, intelligent and up-to-date systems, as well as the rules and instructions of these centers. Finally, the current and optimal state of the licensing process is plotted in the form of graphs that will contribute to a better understanding of this issue.

Spatial analysis of economic sustainability in rural settlements of Langroud County

Majid Yasuri

Introduction
The declining trend of the rural economy, the spread of poverty, and unemployment show that, in practice, the vital development goals in rural areas have failed. The sustainability of the rural economy is a vital corridor to achieving national economic sustainability. Economic sustainability in rural areas means strengthening the foundations of the rural economy to economic security in terms of access to sustainable livelihoods, economic stability, beneficial employment, reliable financial resources and environmentally friendly technology using human resources. Today, it is necessary to pay attention to economic sustainability, considering the challenges facing developing countries. In the current situation, attention to economic sustainability becomes more necessary, given the challenges and bottlenecks that settlements face.
On the other hand, discovering, understanding, and recognizing spatial patterns leads to a better understanding of phenomena and their relationships, actions, and interactions at the space level. The analysis of the elements of geographical space facilitates the mutual understanding of the phenomena and helps to simplify and create order in a vague and complex reality. Based on objective facts, rural settlements in Langaroud County need better economic stability. This issue is evident in cases such as high unemployment, poverty, low agricultural production, etc. Accordingly, the sustainable development of the rural economy is considered a goal to solve the problems and issues of rural areas in the study area. Therefore, this study seeks to answer two questions: First, what spatial pattern does the economic sustainability of rural settlements in Langroud County follow? And second, what is the relationship between the geographical location of rural areas and their level of economic stability?

Methodology
In terms of purpose, research is part of applied-developmental research. It is also descriptive-analytical in terms of analysis method. Research information was collected through field study and the use of the village questionnaire, and library-documentary studies. SPSS, GIS and Excel software have also been used to analyze the data. The study's statistical population is the Rural managers of more than 20 households in the city of Langroud, with 110 Rural managers in 7 villages, which has been done in total.

Discussion and conclusion
According to the research findings, in connection with the first purpose of the research (identifying the spatial pattern of economic sustainability of rural settlements in the study city), it was found that the spatial pattern of economic sustainability and its components (justice, stability, welfare), According to the results obtained from the general statistics of G, the statistics of general Moran and also the statistics of G, is random and one of the most important reasons is the randomness of the spatial pattern of the villages of the city, while in the research (2016) ), The spatial model of economic stability has been clustered; In his research, the spatial pattern of the villages was scattered, but the studied features formed a cluster, but in the present study, the spatial pattern of the villages was random, and the studied features were also random. The giver is that the studied villages have not been affected as much as possible by the surrounding villages. Concerning the second goal, namely the difference in geographical location and the level of economic stability of villages, studies have shown that sustainable villages are located in the plains of the city and as the natural and elevation position of villages goes to the foothills, Their economic stability is also reduced due to the recreational conditions of the mountain villages and the lack of easy access to the city, their dispersion, and the low population of these areas. Therefore, the research hypothesis related to the second question is confirmed that there is a difference between the natural and geographical location of villages and their level of economic stability. These results are consistent with the results of the research of Ghadiri Masoom et al. (2010), who concluded that the villages with the highest level of economic stability are located in the plains, like the current study that economically sustainable villages. There are villages located in the plains with large populations that are more extensive, have a natural location and good communication, and the level of job diversity is relatively higher in them.
According to the obtained results, it can be said that, in general, economic stability in the villages of Langroud county is at a weak level. The natural and communication situation of the villages is one of the most important factors that affect their level of economic stability; As the natural position of the villages moves towards the foothills, the level of economic stability decreases compared to other villages located in the plains. The results indicate that among the villages of Langroud county, the distribution of coefficients of economic stability components has been considerable. In other words, in each of the components of economic stability, several specific villages have the highest level of stability. Furthermore, economic stability in components has not occurred between common villages except in very few cases. In this regard, it can be acknowledged that despite some criteria as good economic stability. Other criteria, such as income level, job opportunities, and investments, are low. There were villages that, for example. The level of economic justice is high, and the level of economic stability is low. Therefore, the economic stability of villages has three components and various indicators that achieving the most desirable state requires the alignment and integration of all components and criteria of economic sustainability. Therefore, with a one-dimensional view of this process, we can not expect the desired results. However, it requires a comprehensive view and attention to all economic sustainability components in Langroud county's villages.

Analyzing the factors affecting the entrepreneurship of rural women in Nahavand County

Bijan Rezaee

Introduction
Villagers and their entrepreneurial skills are important social and economic factors in society and undoubtedly important solutions for rural development, which is also part of the country's sustainable development. In the new theories of rural development, entrepreneurship is a suitable solution for empowerment and capacity building in rural areas to change the current life pattern, reduce the gap between the city and the countryside, and create economic, environmental and institutional economic equality. Many researchers believe that entrepreneurial activities by women have a prominent role in the health of the national economy. In a short time, women were able to create considerable changes in the economic development of countries after being entrepreneurs. However, there are some issues in woman’s empowerment, including the lack of participation of women as half of the country's population (49% of the total population) in social and economic activities, the existence of a large number of women in Iranian society below the poverty line, the lack of self-confidence and self-esteem among them to participate in various social activities, their lack of awareness and knowledge of labor market information, technical and professional training courses, working environment conditions, labor law and most importantly cultural specificities.
Nahavand County is in a good position for integrated development because of its strategic position and abundant resources. However, despite having capabilities, their optimal usage has yet to be made for this county. The rural people of Nahavand County, located south of Hamadan Province, have a very high migration rate due to unemployment and a lack of facilities. For this reason, the problem in the study area is the low level of women's entrepreneurship, personal abilities such as self-confidence and self-esteem, support from the government support and behavioral environment. Therefore, the main issue in this research is analysing factors affecting rural women's entrepreneurship in Nahavand County.

Methodology
This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlative in terms of method, so the study follows the positivism paradigm. The statistical population of the research consists of women entrepreneurs in the villages of Nahavand County, and a total of 110 people were surveyed as a sample. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire. Analysis of the obtained data was done using SmartPLS3 software.

Discussion and conclusion
The research findings indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between individual factors, family factors, economic factors, sociocultural factors and entrepreneurship of rural women, based on the results of path analysis, the influence of individual factors (0.556); family factors (0.125); economic factors (0.398); cultural-social factors (0.349), which shows the impact of all identified factors on rural women's entrepreneurship. Also, individual and economic criteria had the greatest impact on rural women's entrepreneurship.

Analyzing the role of state investment in rural empowerment in the process of sustainable rural development (Case study: Kashan area)

Mahmoud Ganjipour

Introduction
One of the most important goals of forming states is to provide welfare and development for society, and the development process always calls for the state's action. Therefore, the nature of states, political and ideological philosophy and its structure play a key role in the development process, including rural development. Since the formation of the centralized state in Iran and after 1316, planning has started in its current form, and after 60 years, 12 programs have been prepared in the country, 11 of which have been implemented. During the years before the revolution, 6 programs were prepared, and 5 programs were implemented. After the revolution, 6 programs were prepared and 5 programs were implemented, and the sixth program is being completed. In Iran, most of the stages of rural development have been done within the framework of five-year plans, and investment is the most important tool of the state to achieve rural development. The rural management approach until 1970, in most countries of the world, was influenced by the dominance of top-down development management policies and approaches, which followed the emergence of environmental challenges and socio-economic inequalities, the field of attention and change in the bottom-up development approach. It has been provided since the 1980s in order to balance rural settlements. Therefore, in recent decades, empowerment has been proposed as a mechanism for rural development in Iran. However, were the realities that took place in the country's rural homogeneous with the demands and goals of the programs? In other words, considering the high volume of credits spent every year in rural settlements, the question can be raised: What does investing in rural settlements have to do with empowering the villagers? Has the agent of change being able to bring about the necessary changes and transformations in order to empower the villagers? In this study, by recognizing state investments in rural and their role in empowering villagers, how they affect the rural of Kashan was analyzed.

Methodology
The method of the present study is descriptive-analytical. The statistical population was 15255 rural households in Kashan district, and the sample size was 316 people. In this research, using the classification method and using a three-dimensional matrix, indicators such as state investment (effective index), geographical location of the rural and population were considered as effective indicators for determining the sample. Finally, 12 villages were selected. In this article, SPSS software was used to assess the validity and reliability of the questionnaire so that using the KMO test, the validity of the rural household head questionnaire to measure the level of rural empowerment is equal to 0.867 and the validity of the rural household head questionnaire to measure investment The state is calculated to be 0.826. Also, based on the results of the structural validity test, Cronbach's alpha coefficient obtained from the rural household heads questionnaire to measure the level of rural empowerment is equal to 0.974, and the rural household heads questionnaire to measure state investment is equal to 0.846. In this way, the validity and reliability of the questionnaire are confirmed. Furthermore, to explain the relationships between independent and dependent variables, regression analysis and coefficient of determination (R2) were used, and for other spatial analyses, SPSS software was used.

Discussion and conclusion
Findings from field studies indicate a strong, positive and direct relationship between the two variables of investment and rural empowerment (P = 0.000). In other words, based on the coefficient of determination, 13.5% of the variance of rural empowerment is explained by state investment. According to multivariate regression analysis, the variables of physical-spatial investment (BETA = 0.301), social investment (BETA = 0.256) and ecological investment (BETA = 0.228) had the greatest impact on the empowerment variable. As a result, regression analysis shows that with increasing state investment in the studied villages, the rate of rural empowerment also increases.
Therefore, rural empowerment is studied as a new approach to the development of rural areas, with a systematic, integrated and combined view so that self-determination, competence, impact, significance and trust emerge and organize as the driving force of empowerment in rural communities. In this way, the right to development and honorable life in rural areas can be realized objectively. In fact, due to their structural and functional nature, villages are related to all factors of human life, and the challenges cannot be solved with a one-dimensional view. In the integrated view, all factors effectively empower the villagers, and the absence of one of the factors challenges the process of empowering rural communities. According to what has been said, the results of the article provide some strategic points: Lack of careful study and evaluation of developments in rural areas after the arrival of investments. On the other hand, different perceptions of the concepts of capacity building and empowerment in practice have maintained problems in rural society. Finally, in order to achieve the empowerment of local communities through the role of the state in the development of a list perspective, there are significant proposals that should be pursued through the state, realistic and targeted facilitation models. Thus, in sustainable rural development programs, participatory and facilitator planning, realistic, bottom-up and decentralized, conducting regional and local planning studies, deepening indigenous knowledge bases in rural issues, promoting individual responsibility at the design levels, and program implementation must be considered.

Evaluation of Socio-Economics’ Impact of Azad Dam Constructions in on Margin’s Townships in view of Operations Using Benefit-Cost Method (A Case of Kalatarzan District)

Hamed Ghaderzadeh

Introduction
Nowadays, one of the main challenges for the existing and growing human population is food providing. The use of water resources such as natural lakes, reservoirs, dams and rivers are crucial for accessing new food sources. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the construction of Azad dam with an emphasis on structural changes in the affected villages. Water as key of life has a special place in geographical studies. Water is the vital factors to activate of human in its environment because the relationship of human with natural environment without water resource or access will be without support. Therefore, people have always been searching for means to access water. Among these ways, dams play crucial role in storage of current water resource, and storage of water behind dams can be used in different ways. Technology to control, manage, storage and transfer water, besides producing energy, is important for sustainable management of water resources to reach an optimum situation and consumption. The economic evaluation of activities for dams is important in two views: first to optimize allocation and second to justify dams for stakeholders. The current study aims to evaluate the constructed Azad dam in Kalatarzan District, Sanandaj County, Kurdistan Province, Iran. So this study analyzes economic issues in view of people who live the dam base on tangible benefits and costs using benefit-cost method from merely available data and not necessarily long run profits and losses.

Methodology
Respondents were selected by simple random sampling method. The statistical population includes the heads of households living in the villages along the Azad Dam in the Kalatarzan District. Data were collected through a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews in 2021. 146 respondent were determined and asked. Descriptive statistics and cost-benefit model were used to analyze the research data. The number of villages around dam are four.

Discussion and conclusion
The study regarded the decrease in the value of changes in agricultural production (after construction compared to before) and the value of benefits and costs of the dam for the villagers around the dam. The results showed that the total benefits and cost are 65557.3 and 146368.14 million Tomans (IR), respectively. Also, the benefit-cost ratio (at a discount rate of 18 per cent) is 0.4480. As a result, the project of constructing Azad dam for those who live around it has no economic justification. However, the evaluation of results may change, considering all other positive effects such as tourism extension, employment for local people to manage the dam, fishing activities and hunting or negative effects like fast changing of living pattern, climate changes, increase of activity constraints due to live around dam. More specifically, the number of households before dam were about 209 and after that reached to 179 due to decrease of agricultural land that have been sold to dam project. To compensate this loss, a deeper investigation may help to increase labor productivity and hold human capital over there. If human capital will be enhanced in the study area, more value will be added due to the investment and consequently reduced population will be compensated.
According to the area capacity, there are lot of economic opportunity which can take place after dam construction. According to the results, we recommend to establish a study regarding to find out the optimum cropping pattern to increase the income and reduce the losses. Added value of storage water in the area may guarantee investment to constructed dam and its safety. Therefore, the policy maker should provide the complementary activities emphasizing people culture and area advantages.

Determinants of Behavioral Intentions of Agritourists in Rural Areas of Mazandaran Province

Maryam Naghavi

Introduction
Agritourism, regarded as a sustainable development strategy for rural communities, is a tool for economic diversification and conserving land resources, agricultural landscapes and cultural assets. The rural areas of Mazandaran Province are a significant agricultural hub of the country due to their abundant capabilities such as soil fertility, vast plains, good climate and sufficient water resources. This province is also known as one of the most visited tourist destinations with mass tourism form in the country. These capabilities are compatible with developing niche tourism, such as agritourism. Therefore, it is necessary for the tourism governance of Mazandaran to combine the activities of the two sectors of agriculture and tourism to encourage and promote agritourism to preserve the region's agricultural lands and agricultural heritage and traditions in order to prevent unsustainable development. However, success in agritourism requires attention to the issue of planning and demand management to attract interested tourists and also understanding why and how the behavioral processes pattern and their travel decisions. Therefore, this study aims to understand the factors affecting the behavioral intentions of tourists towards agritourism in rural areas of Mazandaran Province. In order to understand and explain the decision-making process, the Planned Behavior model was used to examine the attitudes of tourists towards agricultural activities, their subjective norms and perceived behavioral control as determinants of tourists' behavioral intentions. This model provides suitable conditions for obtaining the necessary information and awareness about tourists' specific behaviors and inclinations towards agritourism.

Methodology
This descriptive and quantitative study is based on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling. The study's statistical population is the tourist who has experience travelling to rural areas of Mazandaran. The number of statistical samples was estimated at 220 people. Data were collected through a web-based questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: demographic and specialized questions. Specialized questions included two items for measuring behavioral intention variable (BI), two items for attitude towards agritourism (ATT), three items for subjective norms (SN), three items for perceived behavioral control variable (PBC) and one item for past experience (PE). The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed using content, construct, convergent, divergent and diagnostic validity. Also, its reliability was confirmed by composite reliability and pre-test of 30 questionnaires based on Cronbach's alpha test. Data classification and analysis were performed through SPSS25 and SmartPLS3.3.3.

Discussion and conclusion
Finally, the results showed that the factors of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioral control had affected the behavioral intentions of tourists to visit agricultural farms and rural areas in Mazandaran Province. It was also found that tourists with a positive belief and attitude towards agritourism activities are more inclined to visit agricultural and rural environments. Compared to other factors determining behavioral intentions, subjective norms have the greatest impact on the intention to the agricultural and rural environment. In other words, the intention to visit increases when people (such as family, relatives, friends or colleagues) and influential persons in virtual spaces recommend travelling to agricultural destinations in rural areas of Mazandaran Province. According to Hofstede's cultural dimensions (national culture), Iran is ranked as one of the collectivist countries and cultures (41), and therefore the people of our society are more affected by social norms. Furthermore, this study found that perceived behavioral control has a positive effect on the behavioral intentions of tourists to visit the agricultural environment of rural areas in Mazandaran Province. Tourists believe that their confidence in their ability to make such trips, as well as enough money and time for vacations, influences their behavioral intentions to visit the agricultural and rural areas of this destination. Although past experience is effective in the relationship between attitude and behavioral intentions, the past experience of tourists had a moderate effect. In this province, because most of the lands are engaged in agricultural activities, little attention has been paid to agritourism activities. In other words, agritourism is a new sector in this traditional destination. Therefore, the previous experiences of tourists do not include in-depth and participatory experiences in agritourism activities and include items such as entertainment and shopping. It should be noted that tourists in this study had a strong tendency to participate in recreational and entertainment activities and did not want to participate in agritourism activities because most of the tourists in this destination are leisure tourists and are not specialized tourists agritourism. Therefore, creating a brand and a new image of rural areas of Mazandaran as an agritourism destination is recommended.