Journal of Iranian Cultural Research
Year:2013 | Volume:6 | Issue:1 (21)|Papers Count:12

The establishment of Cultural Studies departments in Iran and also the big wecome it has received amongst public intellectuals outside university, while far from a distinct theoretical tradition, has nonetheless trnasfoemed the ideology, agenda, approaches and esistemiological and methodological orientation of mainstram social sciences in Iran. Drawing on the writers’ 10 years eduacational experience at Allameh Tabataba’I University and also content analyzing of more than 100 master thesis of Cultural Studies graduates, I argue that methodological diversity, a closer link between theory and method and reliance on a wider range of data analysis strategies have caused a radical change in the mainstream social science research policy and has put forward new agendas in the study of culture and society in Iran thereby bridging humanities and social sciences.

The plurality of the cultural types and goods can be highlighted as one of the most important characteristics of the popular culture. It seems that plurality in societies in transition, which are not the original homeland of this culture, has caused a kind of heterogeneity, which is also evident in Iran as a society in transition. In addition, the consumption space of this culture in Iran, because of the limitations on the production of some types of popular culture, has turned this heterogeneity into conflicting interactions. The challenge between the official and unofficial types of this culture in Iran is an old and problematic one. In the present study, carried out on Tehran’s consumers of official and unofficial types of popular music as significant manifestations of popular culture, attempt is made to address this question: how are the consumers of official and unofficial types of popular music constructed? For this purpose, the theoretical and methodological constructionist approach is adopted, and the focus group technique is employed to collect data; finally, the collected data is analyzed using the thematic analysis technique. Based on the extracted themes in each thematic analysis, it was concluded that the consumers of the official type are non-essentialist, nostalgic and lenient subjects, while the consumers of the unofficial type are essentialist, non-traditionalist, monopolist and universalist subjects. This fundamental difference in the subjectivity of the two groups of consumers results in a static conflicting interaction in the space of popular culture consumption.

In the last few decades sustainable development has become a universal cause. One of the key requirements to achieve sustainable development is rethinking and identifying the concepts and requisites consistent with this idea that rests heavily on environmental, social, and economic sustainability. In this light, this conceptual study aims to re-analyze concepts like “social capital” and the diversionary narration of development, and to draw attention to the important role of knowledge-producing institutions and fundamental knowledge requirements that underlie and influence the quantity and quality of social capital and consequently sustainable development. Conceptualizing and applying an analytico-critical approach requires a systematic, analytical and critical review, which forms the main part of the research methodology employed in this study. In addition, to reinforce the applicability of this article, experiences of some international institutions and advanced countries are accentuated.My findings, which are based on theoretical and empirical studies, emphasize on quality and relevance of education as well as re-conceptualized requisites and new approaches to future education. The reflection of these concepts in citizens’ social capital lays the necessary ground for sustainable development.

In this article the relationship between cultural policies and cinema in Iran is studied through a comparison between cultural-cinematic policies of two different Iranian states during years 1377 and 1389 and their effects on selecting the representative of Iranian cinema to the academy of Oskar. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the field of sociology of cinema, concentrating on Tony Bennett’s theory relating to the effect of politics and state on form and content of cultural products. The methodology of the article is documentary and the technic used is qualitative content analysis.The analysis of cultural policies of cinema, as an issue in the field of sociology of cinema, shows that although form and content of movies are both influenced by social conditions, to which cultural policy is a part, form has been a more important criteria for the selection of movies to present in the academy of Oskar. In other words, there is a general policy in Iran that supports the idea of entering the competition of Oskar each year in order to show that Iranian cinema is so mature that is able to compete with the cinema of other countries. This policy leads to use the form and the aesthetic quality of movies as dominant criteria for the selection. Therefore, although based on each period’s policies and state it is expected that selected movies produce some special contents, the importance of form has led to a selection of movies that are not directly appropriate with their co-existing domestic policies. Considering this interesting finding, it can be theoretically concluded that the effect of cultural policies on cinema is more on the content while the form of cinema is to a great extent free from the bounds of cultural policies.

Adolescents are so much in favor of media productions and they criticize its religious notions and TV productions has a great influence on making a true attitude towards spirituality and religion so possibility of influence Iranian religious Animation on the religious behavior of audiences was studied with use the role of schools in gathering homogeneous audience.This research was done on a number of students aged 12-18 in 8 different non-governmental schools, educational region 2 in Tehran. The research analyzed the examinees in 4 test groups and 4 control groups to observe the effect of religious animation on the students’ religious behavior. Using pairing t-test, one sample t-test and variance analysis (ANOVA), the research examined the effect of age, gender and religious precedent in student’s behavior. The findings prove that watching religious animation strengthens their religious behavior considering gender and religious precedent.

The verse of holy Koran "verily the most honored of you in the sight of Allah is [he who is] the most virtuous of you" directly shows that in god's willing there is no superiority of a man or a group than others except those who have piety to god. In fact, the Islamic identity focuses on the superiority of piety among humans and does not focus on superiority of a man or a group that causes Islamic identity theoretically be against other competitive identities such as ethnic, global and national identity. Therefore, this research aims to study the relationship between Islamic identity and competitive identities (ethnic, national and global). In this way based on Sheldon Stryker theory and survey method, 431 students have elected and have analyzed. The results have shown that there was positive significant relationship between Islamic identity, national and ethnic identity, and negative significant relationship between Islamic identity and global identity. In addition, multivariate regression results have shown that the variables national and global identities have explained 45 percent of the variation of Islamic identity variable. The results shows that national and ethnic identity amplify the Islamic identity and they have positive relationship with it and in fact they are not a competitive identity for Islamic identity but global identity has negative relationship with Islamic identity and therefore it is a competitive identity for Islamic identity.