CULTURAL STUDIES & COMMUNICATION
Year:2015 | Volume:11 | Issue:39 |Papers Count:10

Citizenship participation is the main component in achieving the goals of sustainable development and good urban governance. So, the urban management of Tehran has applied two main approaches at the top of its programs; neighborhood orientation and transforming municipality from the service-only organization to the service-social institution. In this study, entitled “Cultural function of urban management in promotion of citizenship participation in administrating local affairs”, the effect of cultural activities of Tehran municipality on increasing citizenship participation was investigated. Conceptual and analytical model of this study is based on “Ajzen & Fishbien’s reasoned action model”. This research is an applied one and the method used in it is survey-descriptive. To collect data researcher-made questionnaire was used and after examining its validity and reliability, 385 questionnaires, according to infinite population sampling, were distributed and collected among participants who were working in four “Settlement Houses” of Tehran municipality district 4.Data analysis was done by SPSS software. The results indicate that from the point of view of the citizens, who are provider and receiver of services of the mentioned settlement houses, the cultural activities of urban management in Tehran has a positive effect on enhancing “participation attitude”, “normalizing the participation”, “trust on municipality” and “creating an appropriate communication way”. Among the three indicators of the first hypothesis; “individual’s image of participation consequences”, “individual’s information about participation” and “an assessment of the consequences of participation” have had the highest effect on the variable “participation orientation”, respectively. The indicators of second hypothesis in order of influence on the variable “normalize the participation” are; “individual’s motivation to fulfill the expectations of others”, “individual’s image of judging others about participation” and “individual‘s partnership records”. The indicators of third hypothesis in order of influence on the variable “trust on municipality” are; “changing negative mentality about municipality” and “satisfaction with the municipality”. The indicators of the fourth hypothesis in order of influence on the variable “establish the appropriate communication’s way” are; “sustainability”, “being bilateral”, “being institutional and pervasiveness.

Control of body is a topic has been tended by sociologists in recent decades. Domination of body and controlling it is highly dependent on domination of individuals’ mentality in a way that domination of body without overwhelming the mentality is essentially unattainable, and in vain. It seems that in the bodybuilding gyms with regard to the same point, all aspects of the bodybuilder life is controlled by his own mind in order to achieve idealized self. This article wants to investigate the prevalence and intensity of this control in Tehran by qualitative methods such as observation, interview, and theoretical issues and also by relying on the Internet data. It intends to examine the main reasons for the qualitative and quantitative growth of Tehran youths’ trend, including all classes and groups, toward this sport and it’s confrontation with traditional flow like family. In this paper time, space and consumption have been tended highly in forming the new identity of bodybuilder in Tehran.

In this paper, after studying the existing and significant approaches in ‘media literacy’ training, a novel educational program concerning ‘media literacy education’ is presented by combining the two training courses of ‘critical thinking’ (philosophy for children) with media knowledge and skills. In this program thinking skills training is based on discussion and community of inquiry, and it is also substructure of and prior to training media knowledge and. All these together provide ideal training media literacy. In order to examine the program proposed in this research, regarding teaching media literacy, the sample included three groups of fourth grade students, each group containing 11 students: the first group passed the critical thinking course and also media literacy course, the second group passed only the critical thinking course (not media literacy), and the last one passed none of the mentioned courses. They were evaluated through quantitative (a questionnaire based on Likert Spectrum) and qualitative (group discussion and qualitative content analysis of the discussion) methods. Based on the research results, the students who passed the two mentioned courses could decode the message more exact than could the two other groups (teaser about Cheetoz Chips). And the students who passed only the critical thinking course could decode more exact and principled than could the third group which did not pass any courses at all.

A large body of social researches in Iran in purpose of providing techniques for solving various social problems, funded by governmental organizations, is done by researchers in the field of social sciences. Most of these research projects, however, fail to provide specific practical techniques for policy-makers. One of the sources of this failure, this article claims, lies in not gearing a research strategy towards providing a practical policy. This study mainly aims to propose an alternative research strategy, which facilitates presenting specific and practical techniques. This strategy has three underlying principles: considering the variables that their change and manipulation is possible under the respective authority and resources. Measuring the level of effectiveness of variables in the form of competing hypotheses, and focusing on comparative approach instead of conducting (non-comparative) social surveys. To further demonstrate the suggested strategy, this article critically reviews some samples of policy-oriented researches done in a specific research domain (promotion of citizenship ethics in major cities). This paper also explains a sample of policy-oriented research in the same research domain that leads to practical distinct techniques in the research domain by employing the proposed research strategy.

Nowadays, the number of net users has increased by spread of computer among Iranian families, and consequently net-surfing has emerged in the Iranian’s everyday life. In other words, web , has exerted power as a huge social force and turned into an inseparable part of the everyday life of many Iranians. The penetration range of net surfing, in modern forms of business and its entry into the virtual consumption market, have made the recognition of this field more and more important. So this study aims to reach a proper definition of net-surfing in the context of daily life of Iranian society, by investigating people’s lived experience of net-surfing phenomenon. For this purpose, after in-depth interview with 14 purposeful participants, structural and contextual descriptions were extracted by using Moustakas phenomenology research method. Lastly the final combined description was determined to represent common lived experiences of Iranian net-surfing phenomenon in the context of their daily lives.

Leisure has had qualitative and quantitative expansion in the present world and its spending is vital in youths’ identification. So misusing it can lead to deviant behaviors. This paper aims to identify and explain cultural factors influencing on the way of spending leisure in the framework of value system. Hypothesis deducted from theoretical framework was examined through survey method and questionnaire technique which is taken from Alport’s “study of values spectrum” and the way of spending leisure was examined by a structured and self-report questionnaire. The sample population was 369 persons of Dasht-e Azadegan youths. The conclusion indicates that relations between theoretical value and tranquility, social value and social leisure, artistic value and artistic leisure, religious value and social value were proved and the relations between economic value and practical leisure, political value and physical leisure were refuted. Among grounded variables, relations between socialeconomic statues and artistic leisure, gender and physical and practical leisure, matrimony and artistic leisure were proved and relation between age and social leisure was refuted.

Numerous studies have been conducted about the role of media during a crisis. Accordingly diverse functions have been defined for media while in crisis. By applying a prescriptive viewpoint to derive mass media functions, most of the studies have been the based on the opinions of experts and the opinions of the victims have rarely been taken into consideration. For the first time, we have directly talked to the victims to find out their media needs. For the purpose of this study we visited people in Varzaghan and Tabriz, two days after 2012 earthquake in Eastern Azerbaijan and gathered our data by using 27 ethnographical interviews. We used grounded theory to analyze the data. Using open, axial and selective coding of the data, we arrived at four main media needs of the victims including need for information, need for media attention, need for education and need for having representative.

What has made J.D. Salinger's sole novel, The Catcher in the Rye, despite being repeatedly banned by authorities, one of the most frequently challenged and read novels of twentieth century? Being a frequently read novel and a banned one at the same time, have made the novel one excellent model to be scrutinized according to Reader- Response theory. Based on the theories and approaches of reader-response, especially those of W. Iser, the prominent figure of the theory, the present study attempts to unravel the mystery of the novel. According to reader response theories, reading is an interaction between the reader and the text. It is, after all, the readers who construct the meaning of a literary work. Emphasizing the active role of the reader in creating meaning, Iser, who is one of the most outstanding theoricians in reader-response criticism, believes that the meaning emerges out of the ' interaction between the text and the reader' in which the reader brings his/her own literary and non-literary background to the text in order to write the unwritten parts of it. Iser's phenomenological attitude towards a literary work makes him to emphasize more on the concepts such as gaps and indeterminacies, anticipation and retrospection. Being recounted by an unreliable narrator creates a lot of gaps and ambiguities in the novel so that calls the reader to a manifold interaction with the text to construct the meaning. It can also be claimed that one of the main reasons for the popularity of the novel, even years after it was first published, is Salinger's deftly use of such motivating elements all through the novel.