URBAN STUDIES
Year:2015 | Volume:5 | Issue:13|Papers Count:7

In the present era, with globalization and rapid changes in the economy of cities such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo etc. the new concept of "great city" is emerging in the area of urban studies. This concept is in direct competition with Old World cities (like New York, London and Paris) and attracted the attention of many scholars. Accordingly, the subject of this study is to compare the great city with global city. For this purpose, at first, the concept of globalization and its characterization is presented from the perspective of scholars such as Sassen, Friedman, Short and Castells. Then the concept of great city, its characteristics and similarities and differences with these two concepts is highlighted. Therefore, this paper tries to find answers to this basic question: what differences and similarities are there between the great city and global city? In the course of finding a scientific answer to the above question, results obtained with the use of the documentary method show that a great city is one which is based on sustainable development model, with an emphasis on urban governance having economical, social capitals and strong environments which aims to get endogenous development, while the theory of global city focuses on the exogenous development model and lacks the objective measures, local based procedure and a balanced developing approach. That is why the global world intensifies the polarization and worsens the environmental crises.

Educational and cultural facilities are among the key factors contributing to the development of knowledge and culture in cities. A sociological study of the issue among women is highly important in Iran due to women’s role in society and certain cultural considerations in our society. The present study sets to investigate the extent to which women use educational-cultural centers in the city of Shiraz. The research population consisted of all women living in Shiraz. The data were collected from 600 women using a questionnaire. The results showed that the majority of women used these centers to ‘an average extent’ (34.8%) while a minority of them reported frequent use of such centers to ‘a great extent’ (5.2%). The results of ranking educational-cultural centers in terms of use revealed that the subjects preferred movie theaters, libraries, cultural centers, galleries and amphitheaters, respectively, in terms of priority.

Social class structure as the most impressive social group has wide ranging effects on social relationships and the development of social trends. It is too difficult to clarify different aspects of sociological issues of a society without considering the interferences of this variable. Iran’s social class had witnessed considerable changes during the course the years and that is what this research takes into consideration; Oil and its revenues have contributed significantly to it. This paper aims to study social class transformations during the period of (1961 – 1913) in Iran and also to explore its diverse aspects. Many studies have examined class structure in Iran; yet, there have been few quantitative investigations about it. In order to provide a realistic quantitatively-oriented overview of the class structure and to show the social class chanes during the period, all census data of Statistical Center of Iran have been used. Theoretically, this study relies on Thompson, Wright, and Giddens viewpoints; and Nomani and Behdad’s method in their worthwhile study over the class structure in Iran was also utilized. In this study workforce has been divided into four classes; bourgeois class – petty bourgeois class - working class - middle class. Findings show that numerically petty bourgeois class continuously was above all other classes; and middle class had the most improvement during the time; these signs aren’t fair for the forces of production and its progress.

The purpose of this study is the development of a theoretical framework and paradigm model of boys' personal construct of their interpersonal fights in the context of their neighborhoods. In this regard, qualitative methodology and grounded theory have been used. The participants were 18 Shirazi boys (aged 15-18) who have been in Reform schools for interpersonal fights and were selected through purposive and criterion sampling techniques. For the construction of the theoretical framework and paradigmatic model, through 3 coding procedures, more than 50 concepts, 13 sub categories and one central category named "being bully for coping with life situations in neighborhoods" were extracted. The extracted theoretical framework outlined that boys in disadvantaged social space of their neighborhood have been repeatedly exposes to different fights. These exposures desensitize and legitimize fights and leads boys to think that they may be victim of fights. Therefore fear of victimization and prediction of victimization lead them to choose essential solution. So commitment to fight is the most favorite and inevitable strategy for personal and family problem solving that is available to downtown neighborhood boys. They present and show a huge and big fight with victory that not only solves their problems but also obtaining a bully identity (Ghompoz) prevents future probable threats. Thus, in boys' perspective, getting a bully identity in these neighborhoods is an essential way for the continuation of life that causes damage reduction and finally leads to security for them and their significant others against victimization.

This research aims to study the social responsibility of the residents of the city of Bandar Abbas and find out the social and cultural factors that affect it. Theoretical framework of the research was developed by using the theories of Durkheim, Parsons, Bourdieu, Putnam, and pZtumka. The Method of research was survey and the data collection tool was a questionnaire. The research population consisted of all the people of Bandar Abbas (18 and older) of which 384 individuals were selected using a cluster sampling method. Findings of the study indicate that social responsibility of Bandar Abbas people is 61.6 which is above the medium. The level of responsibility in economic, political, social, cultural and environmental domains is different. The lowest level of responsibility of Bandar Abbas people is political. Statistical analysis confirms the main research hypothesis and shows a meaningful relationship between the main independent variables - universalism 0.235, social trust 0.261, religiosity 0.246 - with social responsibility. Among the components of socio -economic status, the income has no relations with responsibility, but the kind of jobs and education were associated with social responsibility. However, social trust variable had the maximum explanation power of social responsibility.

The participation, membership, and cooperation of the members of a society in organized collective and group activities is essential for the attainment of long-term indigenous development, which has numerous prerequisites. Culture, as the essence of society's different domains, has always been influential the development of soeiteis. This article aims to study the relationship between development culture on social participation. The theoretical framework of the study was provided by structural-functionalism which has close affinity with social participation. The research method was survey and the research population consisted of all the residents of districts 1, 10, and 20 of the city of Tehran of which, using Cochran's formula, 300 (100 of each district) individuals were selected as the sample through cluster sampling. The results showed that the components of development culture (belief in development, high culture) was significantly (r=0.397) related to social participation.

Tonekabon and Ramsar are northern coastal cities of Iran, which have witnessed reverse migration flows.The aim of the present study is to investigate the economic, social, political and cultural consequences of reverse migration on the villages of Ramsar and Tonekabon. The theoretical framework was made use of functionalism and life cycle theory. The research method was survey and two types of sampling methods were used. A quota sampling distributed questionnaires randomly among 370 villagers to assess their status before and after migrating to the village, and a purposive sampling method used the snowball technique to distribute a questionnaire among those same 370 people plus 93 rural residents in the village who hold community and government offices. Results indicated a significant and positive relationship between reverse migration and economic, social, and political development. Reverse migrant, however, had a significant but negative impact on the cultural development of the villages. Factor loadings associated with the reverse migration indicated that positive economic performance had the highest impact factor (0.74) with reverse migration.