NAMEH-YE OLUM-E EJTEMAI
Year:2006 | Volume:- | Issue:29|Papers Count:10

This article discusses debates on the relationship of religion and suicide. It utilizes both empirical data and the theoretical considerations as advanced by Durkheim concerning religion's supportive power. At stake is the point that what Durkheim expounded has to be linked to a historical and social context, and that every research should demonstrate the actual social mechanism of such a linkage. Observing historical processes would lead to more detailed specification of religions in the analysis of new cases and more importantly, it would result in inductive explanation of Durkheim's theoretical foundations.The analysis of impacts religion exerts on suicide rate within demographic groupings in the American society in 1970 shows that religion continues to influence suicide rate. Thus, Catholic sects and the evangelical Protestants tend to have lower rate and fundamental Protestant sects tend to have higher rate of suicide. The presence of a Jewish following provides a small yet unstable supportive influence.This article initially tries to explain these results through an examination of different typologies of religions, and then upon observing the evidence concerning whether religious dependence acts on operation of networks linkages, it will proceed with its explanation, taking into account abstract and concrete considerations. The findings will guide us towards a conceptual reconstruction of network theory, to gain a better understanding of Durkhiem's theory.

The methodology of social sciences has always been a matter of much controversy, and it probably will remain so in the foreseeable future. The debate on the method and nature of these sciences is a corollary of their historical development: it began early, as they evolved and rose to prominence. The most important methodological issue in this field was the question of the extent social and physical sciences could be considered similar or different. In philosophy of social sciences a dualistic version maintains that the method of argumentation in these sciences is "natural reasoning". The location of natural reasoning is somewhere between the customary persuasion method and law-like verification method. Natural reasoning depends upon "natural language" more than formalization. It is being said that within such a space, social sciences afford neither falsification nor generalization. Such a claim is perhaps less disputable in political science and anthropology than it is in sociology and economics. Nonetheless, the hard shell of this claim Govers all human and social sciences. This claim amounts to a theory which holds on a fundamental duality of method in human and non-human sciences.The present article seeks exposition and interpretation of such an idea of duality. It looks at its foundations, contents, implications, and presents a cursory criticism of it. Framed within a philosophical analysis and a comparative method, the author will defend the idea that a hardliner dualism is not viable versus a methodological pluralism which does not deny the unity of genus science.

This paper deals with analysis and explanation of discursive citizenship theory as expounded by Habermas in his political philosophy. Thus, we initially set out by presenting a concise overview and comparative examination of largely discussed theories of citizenship (pre-modern, modern, and postmodern). Then we proceed with the analysis of Habermas's theory.Habermas's citizenship theory, given the complex nature of his political theory, is an intertwined theoretical web comprised of sociological theory, social and political philosophies, and ethics and (civil) law. To analyze such a complex conceptual web, we make use of three major interlinking, or intermediary, key categories extant within such a theoretical web. These are:Intersubjective Communicative Rationality, Discourse Ethics and Communicative Action.These key categories, other than constituting the core of Habermas's sociological theory, socio-political philosophy, and his ethical, and civil views, are involved in his conceptualization of citizenship. The main goal of this article is to analyze the relationship and connection among these three key categories with that of Habermasian citizenship. Such an analysis, in our view, is rendered possible through the use of Ricour (text-centered) approach, Heidegger (discovery-disclosure) outlook, and Habermas's (critical) theory.

Ethnicity occupies a central position in fertility studies in multiethnic societies since it provides a context for fertility behavior. However, despite the multiethnic structure of the Iranian society, few studies have been conducted on the relationship between ethnicity and fertility. This paper seeks to examine some hypotheses on the relationship between ethnicity and fertility using the data from "The Study of Socio-economic Characteristics of Households" in 2001.The results of the study are indicative of ethnic-fertility differentials in Iran. Assimilation characteristics as well as cultural/ethnic effect hypotheses have been used to explain the differentials. Statistical analysis revealed that ethnic-fertility differentials reduce substantially after controlling for selected socio-demographic characteristics particularly for education, and thus convergence of fertility behavior of ethnic groups was observed by the authors. Nonetheless, this was only a partial convergence and some of the ethnic differences in fertility remain unexplained. The remaining differences can be explained by proximate determinates of fertility among the ethnic groups, on the one hand, and particular culture, social history, values, customs and beliefs prevalent among the ethnic groups, on the other.Anthropological/demographic studies using qualitative methods can provide a deeper understanding on impacts of ethnic norms, values and sub-culture of a given ethnic group on fertility behaviors in Iran.

Slogans are considered to constitute a main source for studying the ideology and values of a revolution. The Islamic Republic of Iran is no exception. It has many slogans in which the ideology and values of the Revolution are embedded. One of the major themes in the slogans of the Islamic Revolution is the values of Jihad and martyrdom. This paper aims to extract and analyze such values in order to determine their significance in the general context of slogans of the Islamic Revolution and its ideology.This study was carried out using content analysis. The results revealed that among about 4100 slogans of the Islamic Revolution, 390 contained themes related to Jihad and martyrdom. Further analysis of these 390 slogans generated 850 themes relevant to the values of Jihad and martyrdom.Categorization of these themes showed that some 21 percent of them were related to the ultimate values of Jihad and martyrdom, and 23 percent to instrumental values of Jihad and martyrdom. Other themes fell into categories of "readiness for sacrifice for Imam Khomeini", "the social positions of martyrs", "readiness and invitation to Jihad and martyrdom, "relevance of the revolution and revolutionaries to the uprising and martyrdom of Imam Hussein (God's greetings to him)", and other issues.

This article attempts to contemplate on Imam Khomeini's principal idea pertaining to the necessity of enhancing social trust and participation-seeking, as an approach in political activity in Iran. In Imam Khomeini's view, when people's conscious participation is increased in tandem with their self-confidence, then, a basis for equal rights and duties is established between people and the administration of government, and power relations will change from its previous general and unidirectional (up-to-bottom),to bidirectional cooperation between society and the political institution. As a result of this change, the citizens, as equal individuals, are connected with one another.Imam Khomeini criticizes the views portraying the masses as stubborn and self-admiring, as aggregates which seem not to believe in delegating the management of affairs to popular associations and non-governmental organizations. Nonetheless, Imam Khomeini does not suffice to theorization, and as the political leader involved in the current affairs, he presents applicable strategies and makes efforts toward their realization. Obviously, such a delineation of a society characterized by participation-seeking does not mean the negation of political institution which is an important societal instrument in achieving political goals. Instead, it points to this matter that if social and political actions are directed toward networks enjoying high degree of self-determination, which include a trust in own and in colleagues' abilities, then the civil society will reach its envisaged opportunities much easier, and the government will carry out its responsibilities as regards laying the grounds for the formation of people's will.

Aiming at discovering social roots of social duality of attitude and practice in different area of life in Iran, the present research seeks to analyze one of the most pathological aspects of such duality, which is the rising trend of coronary heart diseases in the health area. We attempt to answer the following question: "Why the strong tendency to prevent health (social attitude) contradicts the observed behavior, which is based on high fat consumption and its redoubling within the past thirty years (social practice)"?This study uses Merton's theory of sociological ambivalence. According to Merton's theory, the ambivalence factor should be discovered in the contradictory norms. However, in order to reveal the roots of the research problem and to explain it, the main aim is to develop the primary hypothesis gained from Merton's theory. The findings, based on guidance of the grounded theory, through comparative analysis of situations and views of 91 coronary heart patients and healthy individuals, indicate that social roots of social duality of attitude and practice in the area of health is more comparable to the concept of "high fat consumption hegemony in transition:. Nonetheless, "high fat consumption hegemony" is the main obstacle in linking healthy attitude and practice.