The Ratio of Development to the Territorial Concept

--The land stands for a geographical territory of a nation with a historical background. It is a material-spiritual whole and a unit. It has by nature a boundary, and beyond that boundary, the term ‘residents’ does not make sense if dwellers are out of that boundary and not settling there. Contrary to that, the concept of land refers to the unlimited substance of the earth. Everywhere, there is land while the land absolutely requires inhabitants and history to emerge. The territorial boundary is the territory of its inhabitants, and it is the residents› perception of the territory that creates the concept of the territory through their memories and lived experiences. This menas that land is a simultaneous material-immaterial phenomenon. It is one of those creatures that emerges in the space between the world of matter and meaning and plays a more key role in the lives of man and society in proportion to the hierarchy of existence that it obtains in this respect. Due to the duality of its nature, which is objective-subjective, the land becomes more capable of interacting with humans in their growth process. While it is objective and material, the human body responds to the needs of its material life, and at the same time, due to its immaterial and abstract, it can establish a direct connection with the human soul. This is why the place is considered not only the container for the emergence of meaning but also the meaning itself. The difference and duality between content and container cannot be recognized in the category of place. Therefore, among human needs, space is very important and equal to basic needs. At the same time, due to its semantic aspect, it also goes along with higher human needs, which are cultural. In practice, contrary to the majority of known human needs, which fall into either of the two classes of physical (objective) and spiritual (mental) needs, the place falls into different classes of human needs due to its dual nature in items such as land. Therefore, the planning phase starts with the first necessity, which is safety, and continues until the last human demand, which is the sense of beauty and being understood. Development literature, as it is expected, was formed based on economic indicators. The authors of the idea of development first place it in economic prosperity and providing the chain of human physical needs. Provision of food and other human welfare needs were ordered. In the next phase, human social needs also became the criterion of development. Equal opportunities, social justice, and their positive indicators entered the development literature. At a more advanced stage, the protection of nature and land was exposed to the attention of development. At this stage, sustainability was called the most important characteristic of development to preserve and transfer nature›s heritage to the next generation. Complementary approaches to this path, including resilience, were newer interpretations that made the concept of development more complete. Scrutinizing the evolution process of the concept of development from the beginning to today shows that although the definitions and meaning of development have gained more depth at each stage than before, the curve of continuous evolution has been in the direction of the objective world. The common denominator of physical, social, environmental protection, and resilience needs is their objectivity. So far, sustainable development has been an objective element, such as economic justice, social equality, ecosystems, and planning. Naturally, due to the nature of science that intervenes in explaining the concept of development, which is experimental and objective science, the criteria, indicators, and methods used also remain objective.
The evaluation of the experience of a purely objective approach to development indicates its failure in satisfying humans and society. The most obvious example is the urban and rural development programs, which, although they have been successful in improving some objective indicators, have failed to ensure the satisfaction of the residents. A lot of research emphasizes the importance of the mental aspect in terms of desirability and human satisfaction. Parallel to this need, the growth of knowledge that deals with objective-mental bipolar phenomena is also influential in development literature. The change in the understanding of the important categories of human life cannot ignore the transformation of the concepts of development. Place and landscape are among the most important achievements of the new understanding of man in creating a fundamental change in the objective and subjective duality of Descartes and the modern world. Humans have now understood that there are intermediate and common concepts between the objective and subjective poles, which are one of the most important and influential factors in defining human life and satisfaction. Therefore, in new approaches to development, it is necessary to bring about fundamental transformations in words, concepts, and examples of planning according to new definitions of development issues, including land. Using key words such as region in regional planning should give way to real concepts such as land, city, and neighborhood. In this reading of development, when the real concept of the land is known and its values are appreciated, dear Khuzestan will no longer witness the loss of its historical-geographical advantages against the invasion of British developers and Iranian oil technocrats. Today, rich Khuzestan has become one of the lowest regions of Iran in terms of development. As a result of wrong oil-based development plans, it has lost many of its landscapes, and we are witnessing the largest migrations from this fertile region. Undoubtedly, ignorance of the local values and landscape of Khuzestan in the process of oil-based development in the past century has played the most important role in the decline of the satisfaction of the new generation of that land.