بررسي عوامل اجتماعي اثرگذار بر موفقيت تعاوني هاي مسكن در ايران

Social Factors Influencing Success ofHousing Coops in Iran

Housing cooperatives in Iran have proven not to be very successful. The lack of success could be attributed to a combination of socio-economic, political, and cultural factors in micro. intermediate and macro levels. This article draws on instances of the research that have studied complications of housing coops. It also elaborates further the social issues pertaining to housing coops as a significant, but largely ignored subject. We describe the relevant social issues, explain their respective dimensions, and try to identify the influential factors and explore their snares in the degree of success housing coops experience. The authors offer a theoretical analysis of housing coops as social systems. The arguments are based on Talcott Parsonsʹ theory of sub-systems of action and his views are employed to identify and define research variables, collect the required data for statistical analysis, and to test the hypotheses. The data are collected from a national population sample of 1000 people who are members of a variety of housing coops. Some coops have restricted memberships, by profession and are, for instance for white collar employees, laborers, or teachers; while there are coops with unrestricted membership. Following the data collection, the specific situations of the housing coops were analyzed. On this basis, the lack of internal cohesion of coops, membersʹ weak social participation, lack of cooperation by related organizations and feeble attitudes of coop members arc among the most important factors affecting the degree of success of each coop. A comparative study of different coops according to membership and analysis of the special issues of these coops, seen as consequences of their membership, social make-up, and the level of their socio-economic status, has also been preformed. Finally, some recommendations are offered that may help to improve the social aspects of housing coops.