NAMEH-YE OLUM-E EJTEMAI
Year:2003 | Volume:NEW | Issue:20|Papers Count:17

Abstract The concept of social class is central to social theorizing in the tradition of sociological thought. Both social dynamics and social identities of the members of modern societies are analyzed and understood with the help of this concept. Yet, the common orientation of recent social theories is to accept the increasing importance of the realm of consumption and life styles in forming individual and social identities. This article attempts to analyze changes in the social basis of identities in contemporary societies. The analysis follows three separate but related argumentsvis: 1)change in the relationship between work and leisure;2) fragmentation of class structure in modern societies;and 3) emergence of the culture of consumption. What follows from these arguments is the acceptance of the primacy of culture over social structure of production as well as that of the reflectivity of identities vis-a-vis the determinism of structural formulations.

This article focuses on the identification of the vulnerable rural strata in the Garmsar Plain. Its primary aim is to construct a methodological framework to analyze social stratification in such a rural community. The model employed in this research is informed by sociological theories related to social stratification, quantified through statistical methods such as factor analysis and multivariate regression. Attempt is also made to analyze some of the economic, social, and demographic characteristics of the vulnerable rural strata. The study shows that development policies of the last decades stressing structural adjustment, liberalization, and privatization (which have been implemented by the authorities in particular in the agricultural sector) have been conducive to increasing the size of the vulnerable rural strata. The first step in protecting the vulnerable rural strata is their identification through scientific methods.

Migration has a number of socioeconomic effects on the origin and destination communities. The city of Tehran has the highest crime levels in the nation. The high rates of population growth and migration in the past decades bespeak of the causes behind increased social ills and lack of respect for the laws. This article focuses on the relationship between migrants cultural backgrounds and origins and their committed crimes. The impacts of living conditions and ethnic and cultural characteristics of migrants origins on their types of committed crime in Tehran are analyzed for the year 1380 (2000-200.1)by considering correlations and opportunities for crime. The results show that cultural and ethnic diversity across the nation has resulted in the formation of particular behavioral patterns including those related to crime. Particular cultural backgrounds and origins increase tendencies for particular types of crime among migrants.

This is a summary of a larger study conducted with the goal to identify Afghan immigrantss characteristics and factors influencing their return to their homeland. Following an introduction and a theoretical literature review, the pull and push theory of Everett Lee is chosen as the analytical framework driving the studys data collection and empirical analysis.

Cultural studies have a particular place in the social science literature. While little consensus exists on the concept, most social analysts agree on the importance of cultural studies for the social science discipline. For social life cannot be viewed as a mere "object"or a set of "realities"on a par with the natural world phenomena. Social life includes various forms of ideas, values, beliefs, symbols, attitudes, discourses, and texts as well as their creative and purposeful actors who aim to understand themselves and others through what they receive and project in cognition of a meaningful social life. It is obvious that a deep understanding of the various cultural layers demands appropriate methodologies. This in turn requires an understanding of various available methodologies, their assumptions, and the capabilities of their techniques

This article compares objects of religious ceremomes III Tehran in pre- and post-revolutionary times. The main research question is: Have mourning rituals (as part of the cultural realm) changed in the contemporary period? As religious objects are the tangible features of mourning ceremonies, the research question may also be rephrased as: Have material obgects in mourning ceremonies held in Tehran in changed? To answer the research question, objects of mourning ceremonies used in Tehran in pre- and post-revolutionary times are compared utilizing documentary, participatory observation, and interview methods. Research findings reveal that the culture of mourning ceremonies with objects as its manifestation is changing in Tehran. Old objects such as the banner, the script, and the podium have survived by acquiring new functions in the contemporary ceremonies. In addition to these, new objects, for example pictures of martyrs, texts of political slogans, audio cassettes, and musical instruments have entered contemporary ceremonies in response to recent cultural and social conditions such as the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War. Due to the vastness of the subject and the diversity of mourning ceremony objects, only some of the changes are confirmed in this article

This study offers empirical measures for the concepts of cultural capital and social identity, analyzes the relationship between various ,dimensions of cultural capital and how one defines her/himself, and examines the correlation between cultural capital and the salience of various social identities. Based on the theory advanced by Pierre Bourdieu, cultural capital has three dimensions: subjective, objective, and institutional. The study uses the theory of symbolic interaction to develop a framework to quantitatively analyze the social identity of young adults. The measurement of the dependent variable (social identity) is carried out by performing TST. Research results indicate a positive correlation between cultural capital and the salience of the four types of identity. Yet, the highest degrees of correlation are with religious and national identities while the lowest are with individual and family identities. Also, the correlation between the various types of social identity and objective and subjective dimensions of cultural capital is to some extent different from that with the institutional dimension. The last part of the article discusses the findings in terms of cultural policymaking and future research directions

Several factors play out in the formation process of attitudes, decisions, and actions within the society. Most important among them are reference individuals or groups who form the bases for and standards against which the actors acts are judged. Reference groups have two main functions-normative and comparative. The main research question in this study is to what extent individualss tendencies and needs have a social basis and to what extent they are independent of social and cultural factors. To answer this important question, psychological and social psychological approaches give attention to individual characteristics and dimensions while sociological approaches highlight the society structures and its dominant value system. This paper discusses and compares these different approaches, giving particular attention to the views of Merton and Festinger.

Fertility rates have considerably dropped in recent years across Iran including in the Province of Yazd. Using data from Iran Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS), this paper first analyzes the recent fertility transition in Yazd. Reviewing the recent literature on Iran s situation, it then explains the theoretical basis for the use of qualitative methods in demographic research. Finally, the paper presents the results of a qualitative study, which uses the in-depth interview technique, on fertility culture in Yazd. Research results show that fertility attitudes and behaviors have converged across all age groups and little difference exists now between urban and rural as well as literate and illiterate women. In other words, this paper confirms the convergence of fertility behaviors in the population under study.

This is an attempt to articulate social stratification in Iran and provide empirical proof for it. Critiquing the functional theory of Davis and Moor, the paper provides a new conceptualization for social stratification. It notes that since the publication of Davis and Moors article in 1945, their formulations have remained in the realm of theoretical discussions while social stratification has continued to act as the basis of human society formations and the focus of sociologists endeavors. The paper argues that a reexamination of Davis and Moors theory is required to relate it to social stratifications in the contemporary societies. In addition to addressing the shortcomings in the theory of Davis and Moor, it presents an empirical model for Iran adaptable to other societies.

Three systems of rangeland exploitation exist in Iran-traditional rangeland exploitation system, rangeland exploitation system based on management programs, and cooperative management system of rangeland exploitation each with a different level of efficiency. The aim of this study is to compare the levels of social efficiency in the three systems in order to advance an optimal model. Findings based on data analysis informed by sociological theories are related to social efficiency which is composed of member participation, group sustainability, job compatibility, and social welfare. Test results strongly relate social efficiency to system type. The efficiency scores calculated for the three systems are highest for the cooperative management system of rangeland exploitation and lowest for the traditional rangeland exploitation system.