STRATEGY FOR CULTURE
Year:2019 | Volume:11 | Issue:44 |Papers Count:7

The objective of this paper is to analyze and explain the physical features and human aspects of technical artefacts in social changes with referential emphasis on converging human enhancement technologies. In this line, three approaches to technical artefacts as a social agency are studied and analyzed, i. e. essentialism, social constructionism, and dual nature theory of technical artefacts. On the basis of the functional interpretation of the theory of dual nature, attempt has been made to explain the following contention: realization of function of technical artefacts is subject to taking into consideration the role of social agents (including the user). Hence, if the users of a convergent technical artefacts, belong to a society other than its designers, they can determine a function for that technical artefacts compatible with their own objective, although its realization will become restricted to the objectives of its designers (for instance through the structure and physical features of the target product).

The objective of this study is to introduce the social ontological and epistemological principles of the school of critical realism and to explain the approach of this school in relation to social world and its event to show how by utilizing the principles of this school one can attain a better explanation of social realities. Although this school is realist from ontological perspective and is interpretative-hermeneutic from epistemological perspective, it has serious criticisms on these two schools and accuse both of them of epistemic fallacy. In viewpoint of critical realists, the nature of social reality has three layers, i. e. real, actual, and empirical. The real layer is the very fundamental mechanism of creation and development of social realities that should be emphasized and studied by social sciences researchers. However, most of social researches are limited to the discovery of actual layer of social reality. Bhaskar, by offering RRREIC schema (resolution, redescribing, retroduction, eliminating, identifying, and correcting), tries to understand the more fundamental layers of social reality and also believes that continued criticism of human findings and experiences of human society leads to acquisition of reliable knowledge and prepares the grounds for possibility of redemption. Attempt has been made in this article through development of this method and its employment for explanation of one example of social realities to provide answer to the claim that critical realism has remained at the level of a philosophical school and has not been able to provide an applied methodology for analysis of social events.

One of the important issues of research and publication of its results in the form of scientific texts is observation of research ethic. But, currently the ethics of citation, as a part of research ethic, faces serious challenges. The present study is an attempt to study the experience of researchers in the field of citation behavior and its ethical challenges, instances of unethical citation and also the factors that prepares the grounds and incentive for students to refrain from observing the ethics of citation. Phenomenological method was used in this qualitative study. The research population consisted of 19 PhD students of the departments of Education and Psychology of Isfahan University. In the light of the analysis of the data gathered through interview with the researchers, regarding the citation ethic, overall five main categories were identified including types of citation, citation inclination, influence of colleagues, skill and training, laws and mechanisms.

On the basis of synthetic theoretical viewpoints, identification is a dialectical, two-way process and on the side of factors on major level, the capability of identity reflection depends on the degree of possession of tangible and cultural capital and resources. The present research is an attempt to study the impact of cultural capital on aspects of collective identity of the students of Kurdistan University through synthetic theoretical frameworks. This research is a survey for which 325 students of the Kurdistan University were interviewed. The descriptive findings indicate that the students simultaneously enjoy triad of ethnic, national and cosmopolitan identities. The triad of identities and belongingness to each of these identities is not tantamount to denial and breach of others. The explanatory results indicate that cultural capital, while having significant relations with dimensions of collective identity of students, has different impact on dimensions of identity. In other words, cultural identity has positive correlations with national and cosmopolitan identity, but has negative correlation with ethnic identity. On the basis of regression analysis results, the variable of cultural capital at 0. 324, 0. 23 and 0. 144 respectively explains the variations of the cosmopolitan, ethnic and national identities. Given the high share of cultural capital in epistemological orientations and identity reflection of the students, the following measures seem to be necessary: optimization of cultural activities and extracurricular programs in the university, as a hidden curricular program, encouraging the students to undertake cultural activities, holding different courses and awarding certificates to the students, increasing students’ access to related cultural goods and resources and reviewing the method and policy of selecting local students.

Government intervention is one of the significant issues in economics. Hence, the study of the effects of government behavior on market is a very necessary issue. The question that arises regarding dramatic arts is whether government intervention has been effective in increasing efficiency of theater? The present article is an attempt to study the effect of government intervention on efficiency of production and the optimum border of government intervention in theater production. Linear, inverse U, and threshold specifications were used for the analysis of the data garnered from 120 plays produced in Tehran. The data for this research were collected by a reliable questionnaire based on test-retest approach. The threshold level results indicate that in most cases government intervention has been more than optimum level and has reduced the efficiency of theater production. The results of linear specifications and inverse U are either negative and significant or insignificant. In sum, although these results do not prescribe lack of government intervention, they suggest that the government pays more attention to the impacts of its interventions. Moreover, the government in each intervention should take into consideration the border of effective intervention

In order to better understand ‘ quality culture’ in the Farhangian University, the ‘ grounded theory’ helps us develop a particular conceptual model for the teacher training system in our country, and, this model will provide a proper understanding of quality for the society. The sample of this study includes 23 faculty members of universities and research institutes. Three tools were used to collect the data, namely, interview, taking notes, and review of documents. The data were analyzed through content-analysis method. In the first stage of open coding, 784 concepts were obtained. In the second stage, the data were classified in the form of 120 concepts and 45 categories. In the stage of axial coding, 10 core categories were obtained. In the selective coding stage too the 10 core categories were promoted to the higher abstract level and were classified based on conditional, interactive/procedural and consequential characteristics. The three fundamental categories of quality culture in this university are dividable to inputs (development of quality culture), processes (enablers), an outputs (the issue of improvement of quality) and the university will witness a fundamental change towards improvement of quality by moving towards this model.

The main objective of this survey is to describe and explain the relationship between leisure and religious lifestyles with social happiness among students. The statistical population of this study includes all students of Jahrom City, Fars Province, Iran, while 400 students were selected through multistage random sampling method. The research tool included a questionnaire containing three scales of happiness, leisure lifestyle and religious lifestyle. The descriptive findings of the research show that the students’ happiness average score is medium and upward. As students put their primary years behind and get closer to the last high school years, their happiness decreases and the more they move from the lower classes to the upper classes, from collective religious lifestyle to individualistic lifestyle, from traditional to modern lifestyle, and from public schools to private schools their happiness increases. The inferential results indicate that traditional leisure lifestyle, collective religious lifestyle, social class and household income are related to different dimensions of happiness of students. Overall, it may be concluded that one of the main sources of happiness lies in social communications: on the one hand, extensive and satisfactory communications, and, on the other, membership in social communities and collective activities – entertainment or religious – can increase the social happiness of the individual and consequently that of the society, but, these variables cannot independently explain the dependent variable’ s high variation.