Social Problems of Iran
Year:2016 | Volume:7 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

This research aims to discover the migrants' emotions towards host community and to describe their emotional valence. Relying on qualitative research logic, 11 Afghan migrants were selected using theoretical sampling for in-depth interviews. Emotional valence of their relationships was drawn from narratives of research participants using coding techniques inspired by psychology and sociology of emotions in a given conceptual framework (especially Plutchik, Turner and kemper).Findings showed that firstly, the negative (cold) emotions were more evident than positive (warm) ones, secondly, the positive sentiment was not as stable as negative sentiment, thirdly, lack of proper power, lack of functional social status, mistrust and negative view towards host community resulting in continued cold emotions between migrants and host community were discovered. In general it seems that combination of aforementioned feelings uncovers two social realities: first, migrants have failed in meeting their own expectations and verifying themselves and secondly they see that there is no way to change the situation. In a situation like this fragile relationships, weakened social Solidarity and lack of social commitments prevails.

Even though women’s participation is a needed factor of development, Share of Iranian women in economic activities and political decision making is significantly low. The important question in this regard is what are the factors and barriers in both micro and macro levels which have caused the permanent gender inequality in Iran? Based on social development theory by Chalaby and available official statistical data, in micro level, gender socialization, gender spaces, type of female social network, difficulties in women mobility (physical, occupational, accommodational), restriction of social opportunities (opportunities in education, occupation, associational relationships), and lack of strategic consensus of elites are barriers of development and progress of women’s character advancement. In macro level disorders in normative and symbolic dimensions of social structure do not provide the context for women’s participation in development process.

Juvenile delinquency is one of the most important social issues in Iran as it may lead to other social problems throughout adulthood such as murder, violence, aggression, and so on. One of the well-known causal factors of juvenile delinquency is association with delinquent peers. Present paper aims to study the relationship between juvenile companionship with parenting styles. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study in which hypotheses were tested via correlation. The target population consisted of 14-19 years old students in Tehran in 1393, among them 384 students were selected using multistage cluster sampling method. Reliability and validity of research instrument were calculated using Cronbach's alpha and exploratory factor analysis. Results indicated that authoritative and permissive parenting styles explained 40.3% of the variance in drug and alcohol use and 31.7% of the tendency toward conflict. Finally, Authoritarian style of parenting had no significant relationship with delinquent peers’ companionship, while authoritative and permissive styles, respectively, were risk and protective factors for this kind of association.

This paper aims to study the effect of the government size on human development index over the last three decades in post-revolutionary Iran. Since during these decades the government expenditures have inclined to increase, there has often been a notion among some scholars that the welfare nature of the government has intensified. This has seemingly enforced the idea that the increase of the government disbursements has resulted in the enhancement of human development index in Iran. Nevertheless, the findings of this study, based on econometric models, indicate that despite the fact that the increase of capital expenditures has had a positive effect on the country’s human development index, from the point of view of growth in consuming (current) expenditures, not only it has had no positive or reasonable effect but has had negative effect on the index. In addition, findings indicated that governments in Iran do not follow from the budget models recommended by UN and the government claim pertaining the improvement of people’s quality of life has only been a slogan. Furthermore, the study concludes that other factors like the growth of population has affected the increasing trends of the human development index that should be taken into account in the analysis.

Energy and it overuse is currently considered as one of the most important environmental challenges in the world. Over-consumption of energy sources leads to challenges such as water and air pollution, crisis in depletion of renewable energy resources and thus many governments are trying to change pattern of energy consumption. The main goal of this research is to study the roles of demographic factors, attitudes and knowledge in explaining energy consumption behavior. The study covered a sample of 437 electricity customers under services of the West Mazandaran Power Distribution Company in 2014. The study uses survey method. To calculate the required sample, random sampling method was utilized. Questionnaire was used as the main instrument to collect the required data. Research findings showed that the subjects have expressed optimum level power consumption behavior. In addition, the findings showed that the surveyed people have expressed a rather high level of knowledge about energy consumption. Furthermore, the hypothesis test results showed that among investigated variables, only two variables namely, education and knowledge of energy consumption did not have a meaningful relationship. Finally lack of meaningful relationship between education and knowledge of energy consumption and electricity consumption behavior is explained.

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between Perception of corruption and perceived social justice. This study is a cross-sectional survey. The target population was all Tehran residents, aged 18 to 60. According to the sample size formulas, 400 residents of three developmental zones (low, medium and high) in Tehran were selected by Stratified random sampling. Research tools were checklist of "perception of corruption in organizations", as well as questionnaires of "perceived social justice" and "perception of the process of corruption", that their validity and reliability were confirmed using Cronbach's alpha and factor analysis. Results show that 89.2 % of respondents believe that corruption (bribery, embezzlement, and nepotism) has increased over last 10 years. "Municipalities" and "charities" have the highest and lowest levels of perceived corruption respectively. There was significant (negative) relationship between Perceived social justice with Perception of corruption (p<0.05). Corruption is found more in organizations that have wider economic activity rather than organizations with social and civil activities. Regression analysis showed that the perception of corruption in organizations that people expect them to be more justly impacts the sense of justice among citizens. Generally it seems that perception of corruption is high toward varied institutions and necessary actions are required in order to reduce it.

Present paper studies the relationship between physical and social quality of neighborhood with neighborhood associations in Sanandaj city. In order to do so, firstly, dimensions of urban spaces were defined and then through identification of neighborhood associations, the relationship between urban spaces and neighborhood associations was studied. It was found that social goals such as neighbors’ interaction, collective feeling, neighborhood identity and social equilibrium are involved in physical design and locating of neighborhood units. Findings show that there is a significantly meaningful relationship between urban social and physical dimensions and neighborhood associations of citizens. Practical implications of this research is that urban administrators and law enforcement bodies should pay more attention to social and physical organization of neighborhoods. Reconstruction of facades of buildings and public places, strengthening public services and improving green spaces, parks and leisure centers have determining role in strengthening of neighborhood ties.

Problematic of this study is focused on how male teenagers of Mashhad make meaning of and represent relationship with opposite sex? This research uses constructive interpretation approach, grounded theory method and deep interview technique. Purposive theoretical sampling was used to select 20 participants for interviews. Consequently, data were coded in 13 axial categories and one core category. Research findings indicate that teenagers turn to opposite sex because of emotional problems, intense sexual desire and to seek membership in peer groups. Relationship with opposite sex is a way by which they respond to their sexual need and need to social identity and it helps them to gain social acceptance among peers and reach dominance and prestige through having multiple relationships. Based on current study, experience of relationship with opposite sex results in dependence, emotional pleasure, sexual pleasure, mental engagement and educational problems in teenagers’ lives.