Social Problems of Iran
Year:2013 | Volume:4 | Issue:1 (NEW SERIES OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF LITERATURE AND HUMANITIES)|Papers Count:9

"The West" and "The Modernity" has transformed into important cultural construction in contemporary Iran that played a fundamental role in Iran's contemporary social change. Primitive form of this cultural construction is built in Qajar Era. According to conceptual framework of Alexander's cultural sociology, we indicate prime process of construction of "West" and "Modernity" in Iran's contemporary society, based on Iranians' travel accounts, those who had closely seen the west or western people. The "west" considered as the symbol of freedom in Qajar Era. The "west" codified as "evil" especially in the early of Qajar Era, although modified its weighting, in the next period. Also, two main narrations were formed about "West", in the society as traditionalist and modernist. One of them (Traditionalist) understood the "west" as a threat, and the other (Modernist) emphasized not on the colonialism, but on the progress of "West" (including freedom) and wanted to westernize the society.

It is about five decades that researchers have studied the relationship between perception of organizational justice and employees' work (such as job satisfaction, job engagement and organizational commitment). During this time, many investigations have been done and the domain of literature has been developed remarkably. Moreover, new research fields have been introduced in which attitudinal factors have received special importance and position. Concerning the role of attitudinal factors in organization theories, the present research attempted through a structural model and by use of Amos software investigated the relationship between organizational justice, perceived organizational support, organizational trust variables (independent variables) and organizational commitment (dependent variable). This research especially by use of theories of social exchange, organizational support, Leader-member exchange studied the role of perceived organizational support and organizational trust as mediator variables. The participants in this research were 343 employees from fire department, the Red Crescent organization, university of Shahid Bahonar, office of affairs of Bank Melli branches in Kerman province. The results showed that organizational justice indirectly, through two variables of organizational support and organizational trust affects the commitment. The results also indicated that the perceived organizational support have direct and indirect effects on commitment. Its indirect impact is through the variable of organizational trust and finally the direct effect of the organizational trust on the commitment is more than the effect of the organizational support on the dependent variable.

In spite of strong background of discussion around good society, most of scholars working on this subject finally have fallen into either reductionism or unrealism traps. Regarding this point, Current research is an effort to design and test theoretical model for ideal society respectively via analytical theories and empirical data. The model that is based on Parson's AGIL theory, and Giddense's structuration theory, contains four dimensions- economic, political, social and cultural and two interrelated - micro and structural levels. According to framework, good society is a society that not only enjoys from development an all four dimensions and two levels, but also sets a balance between these dimensions and levels. The empirical part of research that is kind of validity test for the model, is based on variety of resources. Results showed that among five countries -Finland, Slovakia, Turkey, China and Iran, Finland is the closest one to this ideal model.

The current paper deals with the effect of globalization on national and ethnic identities: a case study on Kurds of city Sanandaj. The main question here is how the globalization process links to national and ethnic identities in Iran. Although, the main axis of this framework is based on Roland Robertson's theory, the paper takes into account some other views on the globalization. Hypotheses propounded under the above theoretical framework are as follows: There is a relationship between globalization, consumption of mass-media, tendency for membership in NGOs, and taking trips, and identity. Consequently, consumption of mass media, having tendency for membership in NGOs, and traveling to other provinces and abroad caused weakening of national identity and reinforcing the ethnic identity. In order to test the proposed hypotheses, regression analysis method was used. Experimental evidences confirm only the first hypothesis. The second and the third hypotheses were rejected. As a result, it can be claimed that although the globalized mass media is the most effective factor in explaining dependent variable, however; if conditions like activeness of NGOs, tourism and economic development are achieved, two other independent variables, too, could have positive effect on the dependent variable.

This research tries to analyze social factors that affect social mobility in city Kermanshah. By mobility, we mean inter-generational mobility the relevant data of which were collected from a sample of 300 people, using cluster sampling method, as well as questionnaire and interview techniques. The mobility indicator is determined by the difference in level of job status ranking between a child and his/her father. According to this indicator, 18.7% of respondents enjoyed rising vertical mobility, 25.7% had horizontal mobility, and 29.7% had descending mobility and 26% of respondents had no mobility at all. In sum, research findings show that 18% of changes in social mobility as the dependent variable were determined and could be explained by independent variables of social capital, socio-economic status, and education and the remaining 82% depend on other variables. The variables of education and social capital have positive coefficient with the dependent variable while variables of socio-economic status show negative coefficient with the dependent variable.

In studying barriers to commercialization of new ideas, there are two approaches: one is the objective approach investigating the objective and observable barriers to commercialization. The other is the subjective one, focusing on the perceptions and interpretations of actors regarding the given barriers. The present qualitative study, inspired by phenomenological perspective, follows the second approach. Accordingly, drawing on focus groups interview technique, a total number of three groups, comprising of six students each, from the members of "Elites National Institution", by purposive sampling selected and consequently interviewed. Interviews are then implemented, extracted, and subsequently analyzed. Analysis of data is done within "Collizzi" framework. Findings of the study concerning elites experience in dealing with barriers to commercialization of ideas, in three levels of description, interpretation and explanation, signify the formation of problematic elite, namely, the subject who is lonely in the socioeconomic field, premature in education field, and wanderer in bureaucratic field. Researchers suggest the concept "accomplishment of the elite" as a solution to fill the gap between objective approach towards the elite and the subjective one towards the problem, i.e., their own experience as elite.

Tattooing, as a way for body management and designation, reproduces a social function and meaning beyond its biological performances. Thus, its meaning has been transformed from an anomalous behavior to a fundamental element in self- reflexivity and self- identity upon which the one constitutes and narrates his / her personal narrative of life, individual identity, subjective transformation and sexuality. The main question of this paper targets the ways people reconstruct and reinterpret their bodies through tattooing. The findings, based on interviewing with 32 tattooed informants, demonstrated fundamental changes in their world view and subjective orientation. According to their perception, tattooing is interpreted as a metaphysical quest, symbolic membership in a group, individual narrative, continuing gendered social norms, anti-standardization, and individualization.

Mental health due to its importance for individual and social life, and also for the risks threaten it, have been treated as a social research issue, and due to costs of depression and mental illness, has been considered as a social problem. Social capital has also been a focal point of sociological research on mental health. This paper while reviewing current literature on the relationship of social capital and mental health, discusses controversies and using survey data from Tehran, analyzes relationships of material well-being, social capital and mental health in a sample of 21792 individual in Tehran. This article expands the paradox of Easterlin from happiness studies to mental health, and shows that material well- being is not explaining the level of mental health in Iranian society, and the relationship between social capital and mental health is so weak, resulting in the paradox of Easterlin which is also applicable to Iranian society.

Informal social networks provide the opportunity for exchanging information, making decisions and supporting immigrants both socially and economically. Immigrant's connections with his family members, kinfolk, friends and also neighbors have special importance. In this paper, the structural, interactional and also functional dimensions of friendship, kinship, assistance and neighborhood networks of one hundred samples of Afghan immigrant families living in an area named Golshahr located in Mashhad were studied. The results show that Afghan immigrants receive the most financial and emotional supports from their kinfolk. Although membership of 19 percent of Iranian in immigrants social network implicates their link to the host society but concentrated settlement of 42 percent of Afghan immigrants in one urban point in Mashhad named Golshhar with more than twenty years of settlement, habitation of about 90 percent of their social networks members in this particular part, and great integration of their sub-networks prove the formation of Afghan immigrants' colony. On one hand, this settlement has maintained and reproduced Afghan subculture in Mashhad and on the other hand, it has intensified the social segregation and immigrant-host social distance in this city.