From Physical Development to Official Marginality: Obstacles to Achieving Social Peace in Parand New Town

Introduction

Social peace is an essential condition for social stability, cohesion, and sustainable urban life. It extends beyond the absence of violence or overt conflict and is associated with equitable access to urban services and opportunities, security, life satisfaction, participation, and responsive governance. In new towns, a predominantly physical and housing-oriented approach, when not accompanied by adequate services, infrastructure, employment, transportation, and institutional coordination, may create a gap between formal settlement and actual access to urban opportunities. This condition can contribute to the reproduction of “formal marginalization.” In this study, formal marginalization does not refer to illegal or informal settlement; rather, it describes a situation in which residents live in legally planned and formally recognized urban areas but experience persistent limitations in access to services, economic opportunities, urban facilities, spatial connections, and participation in decision-making. New Town Parand provides an important case for examining this issue. Developed to accommodate part of Tehran’s population overflow, Parand experienced rapid physical and population growth, particularly following the Mehr Housing Program. However, housing expansion was not fully matched by services, infrastructure, employment opportunities, and social facilities. Accordingly, this study examines the relationship between housing development, urban management, formal marginalization, and barriers to social peace in New Town Parand.



Methodology
The study is applied in terms of purpose and employed a mixed quantitative–qualitative research design. In the quantitative component, the statistical population consisted of residents of New Town Parand. Using convenience sampling, 400 valid questionnaires were collected online. The questionnaire covered housing and housing policies, urban services and infrastructure, employment and livelihood opportunities, life satisfaction, urban security, and spatial justice. Items were measured using a five-point Likert scale. Face and content validity were assessed through expert judgment, and reliability was examined using Cronbach’s alpha. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, the one-sample t-test against the theoretical mean of 3, multiple regression, a 95% confidence interval, and Cohen’s effect size in SPSS. In the qualitative component, official documents, development reports, and relevant scientific studies concerning Parand, housing policies, services, infrastructure, employment, and institutional conditions were examined through directed content analysis. Findings from both components were integrated at the interpretation stage.

Results and Discussion
The findings indicate four interconnected challenges affecting social peace in Parand: the mismatch between housing provision and service development, limited local employment and economic opportunities, unequal spatial distribution of facilities, and weak institutional coordination. The quantitative results show that the mean scores of all five examined components were below the theoretical value of 3, indicating unfavorable assessments by residents. Employment and livelihood opportunities recorded the lowest mean score (1.89), followed by urban services and infrastructure (2.21) and spatial justice (2.32). Housing quality and policies received a relatively more favorable score (2.74), although it also remained below the theoretical level.This pattern suggests that the central challenge is not simply a shortage of housing but the gap between housing provision and the formation of a complete urban environment. The relatively better assessment of housing compared with employment and services indicates that physical development has progressed faster than economic opportunities, public services, and infrastructure. Dependence on Tehran for employment and some specialized services may increase travel time and economic costs and restrict residents’ opportunities for participation in social and urban life. Unequal access to facilities among different phases may also reinforce perceptions of spatial inequality and deprivation.The regression analysis showed significant relationships between weak urban governance and management, physical development without infrastructure, concentration-oriented housing policies, socio-spatial segregation, and spatial inequality. Weak governance and urban management had the strongest standardized coefficient (β = 0.44), followed by physical development without infrastructure (β = 0.39), concentration-oriented housing policies (β = 0.31), and socio-spatial segregation (β = 0.22). These findings indicate that spatial inequality is not merely a physical distribution problem; it is also associated with policy choices, housing development patterns, and institutional capacity. They support the interpretation of formal marginalization as a multidimensional condition in which formal residential status does not necessarily guarantee equitable access to urban opportunities. Given the cross-sectional nature of the data, these relationships should not be interpreted as definitive causal relationships.


Conclusion
The findings demonstrate that social peace in New Town Parand depends on more than the absence of overt conflict. It is closely related to equitable access to services and opportunities, employment, spatial justice, life satisfaction, security, participation, and responsive urban governance. Rapid housing expansion has not been accompanied by comparable development of employment opportunities, services, infrastructure, and institutional capacities. Consequently, a gap has emerged between formal settlement and actual urban inclusion, contributing to the persistence of a peripheral position among some residents.Achieving social peace in Parand requires a transition from a housing-centered approach toward an integrated city-centered development strategy. Housing provision should be accompanied by balanced investment in public services, infrastructure, local employment, transportation, public and social spaces, and participatory governance. Reducing spatial inequalities among different phases, strengthening local economic opportunities, improving transportation connections, and increasing institutional coordination and resident participation can contribute to greater spatial justice, trust, belonging, and social cohesion. Ultimately, the main challenge facing Parand is not merely the provision of housing but the incompleteness of the urbanization process. Sustainable social peace requires reducing the gap between the formal status of residence and residents’ actual access to urban opportunities, services, participation, and a sense of belonging.