Identifying the meaning of the quality of living environment affecting social health based on the lived experience of residents of Mashhad city with thematic analysis approach

Yalda pasandideh ¹ ( Department of Sociology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran )
Sasan Vadiea ² ( Department of Sociology , Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran )
Iraj saiearasi ³ ( Department of Sociology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran )

Submited date : 2022-08-28 Accepted date : 2023-01-31

Keywords: social health, "Quality of living environment, , thematic analysis method, interpretive approach, citizens of Mashhad",

Abstract :

Health is a function of economic, social and geographical conditions. Meanwhile, the quality of people's living environment, both from the social and dimensions, is considered one important cause of health. Today's cities are constantly changing and rebuilding their physical and social bodies due to the ever-increasing population and the expansion of the urban area, and in search of a new identity, they ignore relationships, norms and social interactions. Today's urban man, his relationship with the physical and physical components of the city has weakened and people are deprived of social interactions, and this deprivation threatens the social health of the citizens. Basing on this, the article, with an interpretive-constructive approach, has sought to identify the perceptions and the experienced meaning of the respondents living in the neighborhoods of Mashhad city about the quality of their living environment and its affect on their social health. In fact, the question was, with what themes do the residents of Mashhad mean the quality of their living environment? And how does this mental picture fluctuate their patterns and components of social health? In this regard, thematic analysis or theme analysis (TA) based on the 6-step perspective of Brown and Clark (2006) was used to analyze the data. The findings of the research showed that the most important topics and themes that the interviewees expressed regarding the meaning of the quality of the environment related to their social health are 7 themes including: spatial features of the house, physical-spatial features of the neighborhood, building safety, sense of security, legibility of the neighborhood, It was the feeling of belong with the place and the quality of neighborhood relations. Social participation, cohesion and social acceptance were components of social health that increased with the presence of the respondents' sense of environmental desirability.' sense of environmental desirability