امید اجتماعی در دل محرومیت؛ مطالعهای جامعهشناختی بر کیفیت زندگی در مناطق حاشیهای شهر قزوین
محورهای موضوعی : مسائل مرتبط با شهر و حاشیهنشینی
1 - دانشیار گروه جامعهشناسی، دانشکده علوم اجتماعی، دانشگاه بینالمللی امام خمینی، قزوین، ایران
کلید واژه: کیفیت زندگی, امید اجتماعی, محرومیتزدایی, پایداری اجتماعی و حاشیهنشینی.,
چکیده مقاله :
امید اجتماعی به عنوان یکی از مؤلفههای بنیادین پایداری اجتماعی، نقش مهمی در تابآوری و بهبود زیست اجتماعی اقشار محروم ایفا میکند. از سوی دیگر، کیفیت زندگی در ابعاد مختلف آن از جمله سلامت جسمی و روانی، روابط اجتماعی، محیط زندگی و رضایت از زندگی، نقشی اساسی در احساس معنا و امیدواری افراد دارد. از اینرو پژوهش حاضر با هدف بررسی جامعهشناختی رابطه بین کیفیت زندگی و امید اجتماعی در مناطق حاشیهای و کمتر برخوردار شهر قزوین انجام شده است. در این مطالعه، با رویکردی کمّی و پیمایشی، دادهها از طریق پرسشنامه محققساخته کیفیت زندگی و امید اجتماعی جمعآوری شدهاند. جامعه آماری در برگیرنده ساکنان مناطق حاشیهای شهر قزوین، شامل محلههای محمودآباد نمونه، اقبالی، نظامآباد، ناصرآباد، چوبیندر، بیدستان مشعلدار و شریفآباد در اقمار و محلههای لالوآباد، هادیآباد، کوی بهار، باغ نشاط، مغلواک، سلامگاه، عمرمحله (آخوند)، تبریز، دیمج، کوی اداره غله، قملاق، گوسفندان میدان، شیخآباد، آسیاب، محله جنوبی راهآهن، در مناطق داخلی، بالغ بر 79000 نفر بوده و حجم نمونه 384 نفر با استفاده از فرمول کوکران و به روش نمونهگیری خوشهای چندمرحلهای برای گردآوری اطلاعات انتخاب شده است. نتایج حاصل از آزمون همبستگی پیرسون نشان داد که تمامی مؤلفههای کیفیت زندگی (شامل سلامت جسمی، سلامت روانی، روابط اجتماعی، محیط زندگی و رضایت از زندگی) با امید اجتماعی، رابطهای مثبت و معنادار دارند. همچنین تحلیل رگرسیونی چندمتغیره بیانگر آن است که تمامی مؤلفههای کیفیت زندگی، تأثیر مثبت و معناداری بر میزان امید اجتماعی افراد ساکن در این مناطق دارند. متغیرهای حاضر در مدل رگرسیونی توانستهاند 6/55 درصد از تغییرات متغیر وابسته امید اجتماعی را تبیین نمایند. بر این اساس میتوان نتیجه گرفت که ارتقای کیفیت زندگی در ابعاد مختلف آن میتواند به طور مستقیم و مؤثر به افزایش امید اجتماعی در جوامع کمتر برخوردار کمک کند.
Social Hope in the Heart of Deprivation:
A Sociological Study of the Quality of Life in the Marginalized Areas of Qazvin City
Mousa Saadati*
Social hope, as a foundational pillar of social sustainability, plays a critical role in the resilience and psychosocial well-being of marginalized populations. Concurrently, quality of life (QoL) encompassing physical and mental health, social networks, the living environment, and subjective life satisfaction acts as a primary determinant of individuals' sense of meaning and optimism. This study provides a sociological analysis of the relationship between quality of life and social hope within the underdeveloped and marginalized districts of Qazvin. Utilizing a quantitative survey design, empirical data were gathered via a researcher-developed questionnaire. The statistical population comprised the residents of 22 marginalized peripheral and inner-city neighborhoods in Qazvin, totaling approximately 79,000 individuals. A sample of 384 respondents was selected using Cochran’s formula through multi-stage cluster sampling. Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated that all dimensions of quality of life (physical health, mental health, social relationships, living environment, and life satisfaction) possess a positive and statistically significant relationship with social hope. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis indicated that these dimensions collectively accounted for 55.6% of the variance in social hope (R = 0.556). The findings suggest that structural and qualitative interventions targeting urban quality of life can directly and effectively revitalize social hope within underprivileged urban communities.
Keywords: Quality of Life, Social Hope, Deprivation Alleviation, Social Sustainability, Marginalization.
Introduction
In recent decades, the rapid expansion of marginalization and socioeconomic inequalities has emerged as a critical challenge to urban development in medium-sized Iranian cities, including Qazvin. Unbalanced, rapid urbanization has facilitated the growth of peripheral and inner-city informal settlements where residents face severe constraints in accessing essential services, such as healthcare, quality education, adequate housing, and formal employment. These exclusionary conditions not only compromise the objective quality of life (QoL) of residents but also systematically erode social hope, diminishing their belief in the possibility of individual and collective advancement. Social hope transcends mere passive satisfaction with the status quo; it represents an agentic cognitive-structural orientation toward future opportunities, systemic change, and institutional trust. In marginalized environments, therefore, social hope reflects the extent to whom marginalized actors trust that the socioeconomic structure will permit a better future.
Given that QoL is a multidimensional construct encompassing physical, psychological, social, and environmental well-being, deficiencies in any of these domains inevitably yield psychological alienation and a drop in social hope. As Qazvin's urban fringe continues to expand, deciphering the empirical nexus between QoL and social hope becomes highly critical. Adopting a sociological framework, this study investigates how specific dimensions of quality of life modulate social hope among the marginalized inhabitants of Qazvin, thereby establishing an empirical foundation for social policymaking and urban planning centered on poverty alleviation and social sustainability.
Methodology
This study was executed using a quantitative, cross-sectional survey methodology. The target population comprised all residents aged 15 and above residing in 22 designated marginalized neighborhoods in Qazvin, encompassing an aggregate population of roughly 79,000. These specific spaces are characterized by severe economic deprivation, substandard infrastructural services, limited healthcare access, and high structural unemployment, providing an appropriate sociological laboratory to examine the dynamics of hope under constraint.
Using Cochran’s formula, the baseline sample size was determined to be 384 individuals. Due to the geographical dispersion of the neighborhoods and the absence of an integrated individual sampling frame, multi-stage probability cluster sampling was utilized. Marginalized neighborhoods were treated as primary clusters, and respondents within each selected cluster were subsequently isolated using systematic random sampling.
Data collection relied on two structured, researcher-developed scales: a Quality of Life Scale (measuring physical health, mental health, social relationships, living environment, and life satisfaction) and a Social Hope Scale (measuring hope for opportunities, social support, institutional empowerment, and future outlook). The internal consistency of the scales was verified using Cronbach’s alpha, yielding coefficients of 0.87 for Quality of Life and 0.89 for Social Hope, indicating high reliability. Data processing was conducted via SPSS software, employing descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression analysis.
Findings
The results of Pearson’s correlation test indicated that all dimensions of Quality of Life were positively and significantly associated with the various dimensions of social hope, with some relationships being significant at the 0.05 level and others at the stronger 0.01 level. Quality of Life as an overall construct showed the highest positive correlation with overall social hope, providing clear support for the study’s main hypothesis regarding the positive relationship between these two key variables. Among the dimensions, life satisfaction and mental health demonstrated the strongest correlations with social hope (r = 0.637 and r = 0.612, respectively), highlighting the central role of individuals’ subjective evaluation of life and psychological well-being in fostering hope. Social relationships also showed consistently strong and significant associations at the 0.01 level with all dimensions of social hope, underscoring the importance of social support and communication networks in strengthening hope within the community. Although living environment and physical health yielded relatively lower coefficients compared to the other dimensions, they still maintained positive and significant relationships with social hope, suggesting that environmental conditions and physical well-being also contribute to the development and preservation of hope. furthermore, the results of the multiple regression analysis showed that the regression model was statistically significant and had satisfactory explanatory power. With a multiple correlation coefficient of 0.752 and an adjusted R2 of 0.556, the model explained 56.6% of the variance in social hope. The Durbin–Watson statistic (1.897) indicated the independence of errors, while VIF values below 2 confirmed the absence of serious multicollinearity among the predictor variables. All variables entered into the model had a positive and significant effect on social hope. Among them, mental health (β= 0.296), life satisfaction (β = 0.257), and social relationships (β=0.231) emerged as the strongest predictors of social hope.
Discussion
The empirical evidence generated by this study clarifies the socio-structural dynamics governing social hope among the marginalized residents of Qazvin. The positive and significant paths observed across all QoL metrics indicate that hope is deeply anchored in material and psychological well-being. The prominent roles of mental health and life satisfaction suggest that social hope requires emotional stability and cognitive resilience. In distressed urban environments, the ability to visualize a favorable future and map pathways toward goal attainment is structurally hindered without psychological balance. Thus, individuals with higher psychological equilibrium are significantly more predisposed to maintain an agentic social outlook.
These findings align with Abdollahi and Asgari (2022), who highlighted the positive impact of social support networks on hope, as well as Sadeghi (2021) and Soleimani and Rezaei (2020), who verified the strong link between QoL indices and social hope. Similarly, Amiri and Ghaderi (2019) identified mental health as the primary driver of social hope, matching the results obtained here.
Furthermore, the significant impacts of social relationships and the social environment indicate that social hope is not merely an atomized psychological state. Instead, it is intersubjectively co-constructed within social interactions, community networks, and generalized trust. Cultivating supportive networks, generating social capital, and maximizing community participation provide the social infrastructure necessary to prevent despair. This is congruent with Bailey (2018) and Schmid (2018), who conceptualized hope as a product of community belonging. Conversely, the structural limitations noted in Qazvin’s periphery reflect the arguments of Shah et al. (2015), who demonstrated that institutional inequalities in resource distribution suppress social hope.
The findings on life satisfaction also emphasize that subjective interpretations of life conditions are just as vital as objective indicators. As noted by Abdel-Khalek (2016) and Graham (2002), subjective well-being heavily modulates objective reality. Consequently, social hope cannot be generated solely by technocratic adjustments to income or services; it relies on how those changes are perceived, experienced, and translated into life satisfaction by the community.
Theoretically, synthesizing C.R. Snyder’s hope theory, Bourdieu’s social capital paradigm, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and Durkheim’s social cohesion model provides a comprehensive framework for these results. Together, they demonstrate that physical, mental, social, and environmental well-being constitute the structural prerequisites for social hope in marginalized settings.
Therefore, social planners and urban policymakers must prioritize these dimensions through integrated health, cultural, and structural policies. Addressing urban deprivation, fortifying localized social capital, and enhancing institutional trust are essential strategies to reduce marginalization, elevate social hope, and foster social sustainability within underprivileged urban communities.
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* Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Imam Khomeini International University (RA), Qazvin, Iran.
https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-7950-7741
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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-005-5553-0.
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https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12602.
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https://doi.org/10.1080/00210862.2020.1744967.
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