1- Associate Professor, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran , n_shafiei@sbu.ac.ir
2- Ph. D Candidate of Geography and Rural Planning, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Plannin, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
3- Researcher in Geography and Rural Planning, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Faculty of Earth Sciences, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: (733 Views)
Villagers' self-organization as a collaborative process plays a fundamental role in promoting sustainable livelihoods in rural areas. This study was carried out to identify the driving forces affecting the self-organization of villagers and improving sustainable rural livelihood in Ashtian County in Iran. This qualitative research was conducted with an analytical-exploratory approach and through a semi-structured questionnaire and interviews with 30 experts. Collected qualitative data were analyzed using the Delphi method and MicMac software to identify relationships and patterns between concepts. The findings revealed that the distribution of factors and variables influencing the improvement of sustainable rural livelihoods in the studied area was unstable. Also, among the 24 primary influential factors, the 10 factors that had the highest score were identified as the fundamental drivers influencing the future process of self-organization of villagers aligned with sustainable rural livelihood. Drivers of innovation and creativity of villagers in the fields of agricultural and non-agricultural activities, skills and experience of villagers in group activities, establishing local organizations as an Individual factor; drivers of Increasing the spirit of entrepreneurship, launching and promoting new local businesses as a psychological factor; Drivers of Increasing participation, cooperation and sense of responsibility in agricultural and non-agricultural activities as a social factor; Drivers of empowering villagers and increasing their awareness and social and economic skills, Taking advantage of new IT and ICT technologies in the process of structural empowerment of them in the direction of self-organization as an education and empowerment factor; Drivers of access to various and reliable financial resources for use in agricultural and non-agricultural activities as an economic factor; Drivers of delegating authority to villagers in line with local planning and decentralization as a planning and management factor, and finally drivers of supporting the creation and development of local businesses and diversifying the agricultural and non-agricultural activities of villagers, as well as increasing investment in the process of innovative businesses as a socio-economic support factor.