Social Problems of Iran
Year:2012 | Volume:3 | Issue:1 (NEW SERIES OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF LITERATURE AND HUMANITIES)|Papers Count:7

The present paper is an anthropological research about how work of children in the street and street children issue is appeared, how the activities and relations of street working children are and what institutional affairs done about these children in Karaj city. Deep think, holistic and qualitative are used as the main methods. Therefore, the investigators interviewed with more than 30 street children of Karaj city and 10 administrator and related persons to the street children. This field research in five months observed the situation of working street children.Some factors such as fast process of global modernization, migration from undeveloped communities with a totally different culture to the more developed communities and social acceptance of work or even children begging are among the most important factors in creating of street children problem.In this article, the way of choosing job, the children’s attitude against their work, relationship with parents, intra group relationships, and relationships with customers and other people at work have been assessed.The street working children create a network of competition, cooperation and friendship together. The customers, other professionals, and criminals are those who make a constant or inconstant interaction with street children and affect their socialization process differently.

The main goal of this study is to examine the characteristics of the networks of elderly men and women in Tehran and their effects upon flow of resources and social support.The study was performed using a survey method in which data was gathered using a questionnaire. The sample size was 195 elderly men and women with who structured face-to-face interviews were conducted. 150 questionnaires were completed by those who live in their home and 45 questionnaires were completed by those who live in houses for elderly people.The results indicated that 68.1% of the networks of elderly men and women are composed of their kin. Men’s networks are larger and more diverse than women’s networks. Elderly women, on the other hand, receive greater and more varied types of support from their networks. Men and women, however, perform different supportive roles. Frequency of contact and level of intimacy in addition to gender and marital status are the main predictors of social support. Elderly men and women who have more face-to-face contact and higher levels of intimacy with their network members exchange more support with them.

This study aims to provide an epistemological examination of Iranian academic sociology. As a matter of fact, in order to understand the situations leading to establishment or non-establishment of a ruling intellectual tradition in which academic sociology can be articulated, the present structure of sociology will be explored problematically. This study applied qualitative method consequently. In doing so, first, based on induction method depth-in interviews were conducted with selected professors. Then with aid of grounded theory, we extract appropriate data and finally, a meta- analysis of the interviews was provided.The findings revealed a kind of common conceptual categories shared by the selected professors. This indicates that, in spite of absence of a paradigm, tradition, definite school, or a professed intellectual corporation it should not be taken as an amorphous character, structurally indeterminate with illogical order rather, these common conceptual categories along with many explanatory trends are shared with interviewees strongly suggest that academic sociology in Iran has a constitutive logic and determining structure which can reproduce itself through its agents and objective influences.Accordingly, it is concluded that idiomatic, idiosyncratic, and singularity of this particular structure can be condensed into the logic of interval society. It follows that the constitutive logic of social sciences and the theoretical concept of interval society are mutually defining, consistent and supportive. The dominance of the formal and seriously flawed positivism on sociology in Iran can be described as a certain realization of the above mentioned interaction.

The World Bank in its annual report in 2009 mentioned that after 37- year activity of this Bank, and $37 billions expenditure for improvement of urban settlement in developing countries, there are still over 1 billion dwellers residing in informal settlements and squatters. The Bank believes that one should seek the reason for lacking positive effects on spent financial resources in parameters such as inefficiency of attitudes, paradigms and urban planning approaches in these countries. This issue has been highly emphasized through international organizations especially UNHABITAT and believe that urban planning and management approaches require fundamental rectifications.One of the most important challenges in urban planning and management in developing countries such as Iran can be sought in the views and approaches of urban planners and managers to the urban planning literature. Because the dominance of urban planning paradigms and approaches as well as the technocratic urban planning can be considered as the dominant views to the urban planning literature in Iran. The present study includes an analysis of data and information that on their basis the context and magnitude of traditional and Blueprint urban planning dominance and also technocratic paradigm has been evaluated in the wake of urban management in Iran. The statistical population of the research contains field works on 220 urban planners and managers who were present and effective in urban decision making and planning in Rasht. Accordingly, lack of participative planning, inflexibility of city plans such as master plans, routine of technical-executive inclination to the process of urban planning and inefficiency of urban policies, the most imperative negative impacts of technocratic approach dominance in different urban management levels and also traditional urban planning of “master plan-oriented” policies. The representation recommendations and action plans in various arenas of city with the aim of improvements in urban plans approach and policies like the master plan constitute the last part of this paper.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between environmental knowledge and environmental behaviors. It is also going to find out level of environmental responsibly and non-responsible behaviors by urban and rural areas. Finally, it searches to explore what difference and what nexus exists between environmental responsibly behaviors under background variables like age, sex, marital status, level of study, and inhabiting place. The research applies survey method. The statistic sample includes 385 people above 18 years old who inhabit in urban and rural areas of Sanandaj city in Kordestan, Iran. Samples have been selected by stratified sampling method.Data was gathered using questionnaire. The findings showed that about 69.4 percent of people who were studied reported as environmentally friendly responsible behavior and 30.4 percent non-responsible. With regard to environmental knowledge, averagely, the surveyed people have gained less than half score and this result reveals the low level of the environmental knowledge among the respondents. The results also show that there is a relationship between inhabiting place, marital status, age groups and environmental knowledge with environmental behavior. In contrast, there is a relationship between sex and environmental behavior. Finally, survey finding showed that there is a nexus between education and environmental behaviors but the direction of this relationship is reverse and negative. The possible reason of this negative relationship is considered. It is discussed that either lack of environmental education or low level of environmental education may explain why such results were achieved.

In this study a causal model consists of several variables affecting fear of crime among residents was tested. The main variables of the model were derived from social capital, disorganization and victimization theories. The data was gathered from a random sample of 386 adults living in Jannat-Abad neighborhood in Tehran. The SEM technique and AMOS 18 software were used to analyze the data and test the hypothetical model. The finding indicated that perceived disorder was the main predictor of fear of crime among the residents of the neighborhood. Past experiences of victimization and neighborhood satisfaction were also important factor affecting the level of fear among citizens. The findings of this study didn’t support the effect of social networks and preventive measures on reduction of fear among people.

In this paper interpersonal violence and its relation with family and school social capital has been assessed through social capital theories of Pamela Paxton, James Colman, Darlene Right, Kevin Fitzpatrick and the social bond theory of Hirschis. The research method is survey and the statistical population consists of 3014 high school boy students of Nour Abad city (Lorestan province) studying in academic year 2010-2011. 340 students were selected from 12 high schools by Cochran’s sampling formula and randomly systematic method. For measuring independent variables the self –made questionnaire and for dependent variable the CTS scale was used. Findings indicated although most of students live in city (70.6%) unemployed (housewives) and uneducated and most of families have low income. 61.5% of respondents had violent behavior within last 1 year (from 1 to 3 times or more).Two indexes of family and school social capital have similarity from percentage distribution (about 48% have high and very high social capital and 30% low and very low) and degree of relation with violent behavior (correlation coefficient about -0.24) point of view. Finally, four variables of “school possession”, “family income”“, trust in school” and “family support” explain 14% of interpersonal violence changes. Therefore, it can be said that the more family and school social capital and more of the mentioned indexes factors, the less interpersonal violence of students generally and less verbal violence and minor and severe physical violence we have. Also, reinforcing the sense of belonging to school, increasing social trust towards each other and school, and exerting appropriate family support and taking more care of the education conditions of the students that belong to average, and high income families will decrease the likelihood of violent behaviors by boys high school students.