Paper short abstract:

This study indicates that culture, religion, confidence, mutual trust, and social solidarity/ cohesion have an impact upon involvement and participation of people in the development of rural regions. Motivating the community members for involvement, and participation in rural development.

Paper long abstract:

Oakley (1999) observes that co-operation means participation of individuals in an affair, action or certain objective together with and in interaction to other individuals who consider similar purposes. According to Michael Twodaro (1989) 'the necessity of paying attention to rural development in relation to urban development is not because majority of third world population reside in rural regions, but the reason is that the final solution for solving unemployment and population growth problems is optimizing rural environment". The purpose of rural development involves a deep change in social, cultural and economic conditions which is a method for increasing accessible opportunities and facilities for people. The purpose of present study is to investigate cultural, social, religious and economic factors which have an impact upon affecting involvement, participation and co-operation of community in the development of villages of Sar Firoozabad district located in Kermanshah province in Iran. For the present study, qualitative and quantitative methods have been used in combination for data collection. This study indicates that culture, religion, confidence, mutual trust, and social solidarity/ cohesion have an impact upon involvement and participation of people in the development of rural regions. It is observed that mere administrative, technical and factors associated with infra-structure do not have a significant role in motivating the community members for involvement, co-operation and participation in the process of rural development