Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST)
2 Research Group of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Department of Technology Development Studies (DTDS), Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Tehran, Iran.
3 Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Faculty of Agricultural Management, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran
4 Department of Rural Development Management, Faculty of Agriculture, Yasouj University, Yasouj, Iran.
Abstract
Cultural development has been identified as one of the key requirements for promoting other aspects of sustainable development. On the other hand, recognizing the level of cultural development capabilities and facilities at the environmental level can be effective for planning to reduce inequality gaps among different areas. Therefore, the purpose of the present exploratory research, which was conducted through hybrid indexing, was to measure the environmental differences in the level of cultural development indicators of Iran's provinces. Accordingly, 31 provinces were examined based on 19 cultural development indicators. The research method was based on constructing a composite indicator. In the first step, the weight of the indicators was calculated by the principal component analysis and the composite indicator of cultural development at the provincial level was calculated by the TOPSIS method. The coefficient of variation and the Williamson coefficient were also calculated to investigate the inequality in the distribution of indicators. Finally, GIS software and hierarchical cluster analysis were applied to classify the level of cultural development of the provinces. The results indicate the existence of high inequality in the indicators related to book publishing. Furthermore, the provinces of Tehran, Mazandaran, Khorasan Razavi, Isfahan, Bushehr were in the best situation and Lorestan, Kurdistan, Sistan and Baluchestan, West Azerbaijan and Golestan, respectively, have the lowest rank in terms of the composite indicator. The findings of leveling the provinces and also cluster analysis confirmed the existence of gap in the level of cultural development of provinces. Therefore, improving the cultural development of provinces with low-level development should be taken more into account by the cultural planners.
Keywords
)