In recent decades, the theory of Sustainable Development has been introduced to several strands of science. This theory and its special view to communities (Sustainable Community Development) as the cell of urban life, demonstrates the solution to urban problems by highlighting the meaning of city neighborhoods. In the local scale, it is essential to use a collaborative process of development, which is based on the active participation of local people as social capital. In this way, the perception of local residents of a collaborative process is what makes this process successful or otherwise. This article identifies the perception of local residents towards the collaborative process and its positive and negative aspects. This is done using the “Deep Interview” and “Focus Group Discussion” techniques, deployed within the Jolfa Mahalla community, as a sample urban neighborhood in Tehran, with a rich historical background and strong social networks. This paper aims to argue that the lack of participatory culture between people and local residents can lead to the breakdown of relationship and communication between them, but more importantly, the absence of local urban spaces in neighborhoods further augments this problem. Thus, making suitable local spaces encourages people to participate in local development projects.

Keywords: Sustainable Community Development, Social Capital, People Participation, Resident's Perception, Deep Interview, Focus Group Discussion

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