MARIFAT I FARHANGI AND EJTEMAII
Year:2012 | Volume:3 | Issue:3 (11)|Papers Count:6

Stratification and injustice are among the obvious inevitable, deep-rooted social realities in every society. Sociologists present different views on this issue, and the main views are two macro-theories called conflictism and functionalism. Using a descriptive-analytical method, the present paper expounds the general views of the Quran on this issue, giving special attention to Al-Mizan Commentary and the late 'Allamah Tabatabaii's views. Among the results of this study are providing a critical approach to some of the views discussed in sociology and evaluating these views in the light of Quranic teachings.

The present paper seeks to find out a conceptual model for conducting pathological studies about the status of mosque in Iran. This model is an outcome of interviewing 23 seminary and university professors and pundits and researchers in the field of mosque studies. Content analysis was used in analyzing the data of these interviews. The research finding is that the problems relating to mosque fall into three general categories: 1. Different cultural, social, political and economic domains, 2.Elements, organizations and institutions concerning mosque management, 3. Religious and cultural institutions and organizations parallel to mosque. These three categories include all the problems relating to mosque. According to the proposed model, most of damages, their causes, outcomes and modus operandi for preventing them are included in these categories.

"Lifestyle" is a rather new scientific term which is defined differently by different approaches. The best and most comprehensive approach seems to be the theology-based approach. According to this approach, lifestyle is a set of organized behavior which has become a distinctive feature of an individual or a group's behavior influenced by accepted beliefs and values and is appropriate to individual desires and social conditions.Lifestyle has an explanatory and symbolic aspect. The outward aspect constitutes the inner identity and hidden aspects of the individual and collective identity. Accordingly, lifestyle can be used as an indicator for assessing the quality of individuals and societies' faith. Quranic verses and Infallible Imams' traditions confirm this fact. Lack of harmony between individuals' faith and their lifestyle, in spite of unity of beliefs and values, or the difference between lifestyles, in spite of the unity of beliefs and values, has different causes. Among these factors are gradation of faith, variety of instincts and desires and their influence on the way of selecting the individuals, the effect of social and environmental conditions or lack of social institutions which are compatible with beliefs and values on lifestyle.

Today, given the increase in the theoretical criticisms of positivistic approach, many scientists of social and human sciences emphasize on the qualitative methods of research instead of gathering quantitative data and statistical analyses. One of the widespread methods of qualitative research is critical discourse analysis. Philosophically, critical discourse analysis based on structuralism reduces reality into human structures by emphasising on human agency. Referring to the logical requirements of structuralist foundations of critical discourse analysis, the present paper concludes that epistemologically this approach leads to relativism, sophistry and negation of cognition, axiological relativity, self-contradiction, refusal of truth and falsity, and refusal of ethics.

The present paper examines and comments on the anthropological and methodological foundations of two paradigms of positivism and critical realism and their influence on one another. An argumentative-demonstrative method is used in this paper to demonstrate the idea that the components of each paradigm in an epistemic system are logically related and the acceptance of every component necessitates the acceptance of the other components. Since the paradigm of positivism has a mechanical attitude about man, it adopts a model taken from natural sciences in its methodological foundations, appeals to a kind of descriptive method as a reliable method free from value and considers quantitative method to be sufficient. On the other hand, since the paradigm of critical realism considers man to have a social identity, it considers the presuppositions agreed upon by individuals in communicative action as one of the important elements of its methodological judgment in its method and since it has a realistic concern, it considers practical adequacy as another element of its methodological judgment. For gathering the data, this paradigm combines quantitative and qualitative methods and considers that neither of them can be sufficient by itself.

The present paper seeks to evaluate the sociological differences among 400 women aged 18 to 40 years old living in Shiraz. The sample was selected through multi-stage random cluster sampling. The main question is whether or not there is a significant difference between traditionalist and modernist women aged 18 to 40 in Shiraz in terms of social capital, cultural capital, media consumption, religiosity, age and socioeconomic position. The descriptive finding is that the mean score of women inclination towards traditionalist discourses is % 67.1 and the mean score of their inclination towards modernist discourses is %63.4. The results indicate that the scale of traditionalist women's social capital, religiosity and age is significantly more than that of their modernist counterparts. Conversely, modernist women's cultural capital and media consumption is significantly more than that of traditionalist women. No significant difference was detected between these two groups in terms of socioeconomic position.