The Situation of Social Capital in New Settlements of Developing Countries Case Study: Golbahar, Mashhad, Iran

The increasing growth of population in developing countries has provided a new situation in developing countries especially in Iran. The literature review of the research shows that the older parts of cities are unable to meet the increasing need for new houses in developing countries. Socioeconomic challenges and other environmental issues turned old parts of cities into deteriorating districts which result in increasing demand for new shelters. Therefore, generally new residential complexes are built and developed in new parts of the cities which are located in suburbs and its vicinities. But the main question is that whether those new city parts can perform their main duties especially in the area of social sustainability for the residents or not? As a result, the most important questions of the research are: (a) what does social sustainability mean? And what kinds of parameters can represent the meaning of social sustainability in residential complexes? And (b) how is the quality of social capital in new parts of developing cities in comparison with older parts? To answer the previous mentioned questions of research, the city of Mashhad has been chosen as a case study of analysis. The research is to compare Golbahar residential complex as a new-built districts with conventional residential areas of Mashhad. Two neighbourhoods are chosen from Golbahar new Settlements and two other samples will be chosen accidentally from the older parts of the city of Mashhad. Case study method and combined strategies have been adopted to analyze the samples. Survey techniques by means of diagnostic questionnaires have been adopted for data gathering. The results of the research show that the newer parts of cities have researched remarkable successes in some fields especially providing people with safe and modern shelters. But those are not so successful in social sustainability and had yet to increase the social capital of residents.