STRATEGIC RESEARCH ON SOCIAL PROBLEMS IN IRAN
Year:2021 | Volume:10 | Issue:1|Papers Count:6

Introduction Cinema as one of the main arts of our world has reflected on many social issues in recent decades. Infidelity as a social phenomenon includes behaviours outside the marital relations by married couples. Infidelity is a sensitive phenomenon for a person and society and can lead to several problems for couples and family members. Consequently, social actors and thinkers have reflected on this in different ways. One way to look at a social issue such as infidelity is to investigate cultural products such as novels and movies. Cinema is one of the most important visual arts which can have a great impact on the viewer and be a suitable platform for understanding social issues. Many movies address the causes and consequences of infidelity. Infidelity is among the issues addressed in cinema in recent decades and many narratives of it have been represented in the Iranian and world cinema. We studied how this notion is represented in the last two decades. The aim of this qualitative research was to investigate how marital infidelity is represented in cinema films. The research question is: How are the contexts, consequences, and couple reactions about infidelity narrated? Materials and Methods This research has been conducted with a qualitative approach and its implementation method is close to narrative analysis among various qualitative research methods. The data were gathered through watching the selected films and especially the dialogues. Accordingly, the data collection method was observation-documentary. After reviewing more than 50 films related to the issue, 14 films were selected by the purposeful sampling method with a focus on the films focusing on infidelity produced from 2001 to 2020 in the Iranian cinema. The selected films were: Yalda Night, Santouri, Chaharshanbeh Soori, Saadat Abad, Private Life, Wooden Bridge, I am his Wife, Mr. Mahmoudi and Banoo cohabitation, Snow on the Pines, Love Period, Ice Age, Anger and Commotion, We are Not Used to, and Smoky under the Roof. For data analysis, the thematic analysis method was used in order to code and represent the data. . The goal of thematic analysis was to report on the content and meaning of patterns in the data. Discussion of Results and Conclusions The main constructed themes from the films included sexual and emotional infidelity, marital dissatisfaction, social context, personal anomy, infidelity as vengeance, imperative acceptance, self-disorganization, and disruption of family relations. The final theme showed infidelity as life suspension implying infidelity as a result and cause of this suspension. It became clear that marital infidelity represents a kind of suspension in life. According to the findings, infidelity is represented in Iranian cinema as a suspension. All the dialogues and scenes show a suspended and undecided life. The narrative of this uncertainty is not common to all films, but they have major commonalities. The most important reason for marital infidelity reflected by the movies is marital dissatisfaction. It is the main factor that directly causes marital infidelity and has negative relationship outcomes. In this way, the greater the satisfaction of married life is, the less the possibility of committing infidelity will be. We examined the reasons for infidelity at three levels of societal, personal, and interpersonal harm. Finally, we came to the conclusion that social and personal harms affect marital dissatisfaction as well as infidelity. Moving away from traditional and patriarchal thinking, addiction, rethinking sexual and emotional issues, fluidity in relationships, irresponsibility and secrecy, dissatisfaction in married life are among factors contributing to marital infidelity.

Introduction: Smoking is one of the global health challenges and a risk factor for death, both in developed and developing countries. Smoking is the second leading risk factor for global disease burden, leading to more than six million deaths worldwide annually. It is noteworthy that many students have turned to smokeing and despite recognizing its harms, smoking among students is increasing. Because many smokers start their first cigarette at the university, university students should be monitored for their smoking behaviors to design tobacco prevention programs. The aim of this qualitative study was to investigate the semantic system of non-native smoker students in the experience of smoking at the university. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted using the grounded theory qualitative research method. The grounded theory methodology (Glaser & Strauss, 1998, Charmaz, 2006) is a methodological approach in which data collection, analysis, and theory stand in a reciprocal relationship. Participants included 27 students (18-30 years old) who were selected by the purposeful sampling method. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews to collect the data. Data saturation criteria were used for deciding about the sample size, and the sampling process continued until the answers became repetitive and no new concept could be created. Before starting the interviews, the authors collected students’ consent forms. The participants became familiar with the research procedure through the explanation of the research purposes, questions, and methods. After each interview, the authors transcribed the interview talks and data analysis started from the first interview. For data analysis, the theoretical coding (Strause & Corbin, 1998) was utilized by three coding levels including open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. During the open coding, interview texts were reviewed and encoded line by line and a concept was assigned for the meaningful phrase of the interviewee talks. In the second phase of coding, axial coding, the constructed concepts were put together and were transformed into categories that were more abstract in comparison to primary concepts. At the third level of coding, categories were linked together and a core category emerged as the final category. The authors tried to achieve a level of credibility in research findings by continuous comparisons of participants’ statements and paying attention to their feedbacks regarding the analysis. Additionally, the authors checked the final concepts by the participants, thisconfirmed the constructed concepts and findings. Discussion of Results and Conclusions: Data analysis was conducted using theoretical coding in three stages of open, axial, and selective coding (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). During the coding process, 7 main categories were constructed. Non-native smoking students’ experiences and interpretations were described in categories including habitus and common action, weaknesses in university welfare services, the anomalies of student life, lesson pressure, risky relationships, weaknesses in parental communication skills, and presence in an unhealthy environment. Each of the discovered categories reflected the conditions of the students that caused them to turn to smoking. Finally, ‘accumulative dissatisfaction’ was emerged as the final category. This concept had two basic dimensions. The first one was the dissatisfaction formed in the students due to the unfavorable conditions in which they were due to leaving the family environment, entering the university environment and living away from the family. Another was the accumulation of such dissatisfaction within them. Living alone and away from the family and in a different environment made the students’ daily lives more difficult. Changes in the life of non-native students led to the formation of a new habitus in which most non-native students shared the same character and actions. Universities and specialists should pay attention to such situations especially by designing a social care system. The strong social security and social care system. Counseling in universities can reduce some negative consequences of smoking for students and reduce the number of smoking students.

Introduction: Climate change (CC) is a phenomenon that rapidly occurs and the necessity of adaptation to it is crucial. Knowledge of climate change and having certainty towards its occurrence are critical to the empowerment of vulnerable groups. In other words, taking a scientific and proper approach to deal with the issue of global climate change (GCG) requires awareness towards this phenomenon which helps to make a proper and applicable policy. To address CC issues like environmental risks, we need to understand the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to CC. Because environmental issues of the 21st century are characterized by a high level of scientific and technical complexity, good citizens need to be well informed. Therefore, by arising knowledge of CC, individual behavioral changes directed towards combating the problem can be engendered. In recent years, many researchers have examined public knowledge of the greenhouse effect and ozone depletion. This field of study seems new. Iran is a signatory of the Kyoto Protocol, and according to this treaty, it is obliged to implement mitigation and adaptation policies to reduce greenhouse gases. The performance indicators reported by the German Institute for Climate Watch in 2011 reported that Iran’s ranking dropped 14 steps compared with the previous period based on the performance index of climate change. According to the enactment of the rules of procedure adopted Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol in July 2009 by cabinet and the National Climate Change Committee and the Secretariat related to it in Iran's Environmental Protection Agency, it is expected Iran gets better grades in terms of reducing carbon emissions. The main purpose of the present study was to assess the level of adaptation of villagers of Babolsar city to climate change and its relationship with social factors. Materials and Methods: The present study utilized the survey method and the main tool for data collection was a questionnaire. The main focus of this study was assessing farmers’ knowledge and the unit of analysis in this study was farmers and the level of analysis was micro. Of 2877 total farmers of Babolsar, using Cochran's formula and multi-stage cluster sampling, 224 were selected as the sample. The questionnaire consisted of 64 questions. The questions were either open-ended or in multiple-choice format. The validity rate of questions was calculated as higher than 60%. Through this research, 4 hypotheses were examined. Data entry, editing, and final processing were performed by applying SPSS software. The initial analysis showed that the dependent variable had a normal distribution and the authors utilized parametric tests (e. g., Pearson Correlation Coefficient) for testing the hypotheses accordingly. Discussion of Results and Conclusions: The results of the study showed that the surveyed villagers are highly adaptable to climate change (mean = 4. 00 of 5). The level of adherence of villagers to agricultural experts and local people in carrying out agricultural activities is moderate, while their effectiveness is low from the norms of the local council. The level of institutional trust by farmers has been moderate. Based on the results of bivariate analysis, the arable land area had the highest correlation with the adaptation of the villagers with the consequences of climate change (r = 0. 20). There is no significant difference in the adaptation of the villagers with the consequences of climate change in agriculture by age and income. According to the research results, it can be suggested that to improve the adaptation of villagers to climate change and maintain their livelihood and prevent the negative consequences of climate change on agriculture (such as job change and migration), necessary measures are required to take place to increase the level of social trust of villagers towards government and relevant institutions. This training should be about recognizing and adapting to climate change, how to increase income as well as resilience to the negative consequences of climate change, and how to deal with it. To deal with the negative consequences of climate change (such as rising temperatures and lack of rainfall), the relationship between the Organization Agricultural Jihad experts and gardeners and farmers must be strengthened.

Introduction: Nowadays, families face a spectrum of social harms and issues that influence their lives significantly and require to be identified. For this purpose, the current study aimed at analyzing women’s perceived understanding of family harms and hearing their accounts of family issues and harms. That is because women in many cases gain a deeper understanding of the issues and challenges in the family life and the changes occurring there since they play a pivotal role within families and establish interactions and relations with other members of the family. On the other hand, the informal social networks where women are members and their social bonds to women’s groups make it possible for them to share their daily experiences and accumulate a plethora of women’s experiences and interpretations of issues in daily lives, particularly regarding the family life. In many cases, such experiences involve interpretations that can be valuable in understanding family harms and social issues. Materials and Methods: The current study was conducted using a qualitative and phenomenological methodology. The data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 17 women (aged 18-65 years old) in Fasa, which had been selected according to the purposive sampling technique. The semi-structured interview refers to a flexible interview in which questions are designed based on the main questions of a particular study. In the current study, the research questions were formulated based on the following major questions:-How do the participants understand and describe issues in the domain of family?-What are the most important issues for women according to the participants?-How do women face family issues? How do the female participants classify and categorize family issues?-Which factors are mentioned by the female participants as the background factors in the emergence of social issues? Each participant who took part in the study was completely aware of the process of research and interviews. To obtain their consent, the research study including its goals, questions, the manner of participating, and the process of interviews was explained to all of the participants. In the current study, the Colaizzi’s method was used for data analysis. Thus, the audio files obtained from each interview session were transcribed and coded in a textual format. The extraction of concepts aimed to collect the participants’ significant statements related to the topic of the study and special care was taken so that these statements can be collected with similar valuation and free from repetition and overlap. After the first stage was over, themes and categories were extracted by comparing and merging or eliminating early concepts, and the process of data analysis was conducted. Discussion of Results and Conclusions: Based on the results of the study, two types of harms in the form of “content harms” and “structural harms” were identified and classified. Content harms, which mostly deal with the relationships inside a family and between family members, include three major categories in the form of “the formation of solitude chrysalis and individualized worlds”, “generalized parenting and increasing child-centeredness”, and “constant disagreements and conflicts in the family”. In addition, the second type that refers to external aspects of a family named “structural harms” has been classified in the form of three major categories. These categories include “changes in family values and beliefs as the changes and developments in the family institutions”, “the spillover of social harms to families”, and “challenges related to social welfare”. Altogether, it seems that harms and issues within the family include a wide spectrum of social issues. Though these harms have been classified in the current study into two groups called content and structural harms, many of them are so complicated and intertwined that it seems they originate from one another and create a cycle of harm and social issues. They can be interpreted and assigned meaning based on their cultural environments and backgrounds, and the reduction and prevention of such harms require that those backgrounds be taken into consideration.

Introduction Employees are the major capital of knowledge-oriented enterprises that have particular and distinct characteristics compared to ordinary employees. Thus, it is not easy to retain them in an enterprise. For this reason, a special leadership style is required. Moreover, specific characteristics of knowledge-oriented enterprises including knowledge centrality in all their activities require an appropriate leadership style. In this regard, the present study aims to investigate a leadership model for knowledge-oriented enterprises in Isfahan City. Materials and Methods This applied-developmental study is exploratory and mixed research (qualitative-quantitative). In the qualitative section, the grounded theory approach and Strauss and Corbin's systematic GTM scheme were used. The statistical population in the qualitative section included managers of knowledge-oriented enterprises at Isfahan Science and Technology Town. Theoretical sampling was employed in this section. Semi-structured interviews were utilized for data collection. The data were analyzed via a three-phase coding process (open, axial, and selective) and finally, it was classified into six classes, that is, causal factors, central phenomenon, underlying factors, intervening factors, strategies, and consequences. In the quantitative section, inferential statistics were employed. The tool of data collection was a researcher-made questionnaire extracted from the results of the qualitative section. The statistical population consisted of experts of knowledge-oriented enterprises in Isfahan City. Then, 220 questionnaires were distributed randomly. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed through content validity and construct validity. The content validity was confirmed by the experts and construct validity was approved using the structural equation modeling with the help of Amos 22 software. Discussion of Results and Conclusions The interviews were examined thoroughly via the systematic method and conducting the three-phase coding. The obtained open codes were 765. The classification of codes continued and they were reduced to 258 codes in the central phenomenon phase. Then, they were reduced to 33 codes in the selective phase. While confirming the validity by experts, one code was omitted and finally 32 codes were considered in six main categories. In the end, the goodness of fit of all components of the conceptual model was explored using the confirmatory factor analysis. The findings of the present study indicated that increased professionalism and specialization, reinforcement of competitive advantage, survival of the enterprise, knowledge nature of the enterprise, environmental dynamism, and capability of the knowledge-oriented enterprise were in accordance with environmental changes of causal variables of the knowledge-oriented leadership style. The dimensions identified for the central phenomenon of knowledge-oriented leadership were guiding of learning by a knowledge-oriented leader, role model as the leader of knowledge-oriented enterprises, creating knowledge space, and support of knowledge-oriented leadership from learning. In the knowledge-oriented enterprises, the dimensions included weak economic grounds and limitation of financial resources, technological ground and infrastructures, interactive and communicative grounds, structural and control grounds, knowledge ground, knowledge employees, and cultural ground. In addition, the identified intervening factors in the knowledge-oriented leadership model were the government and affiliated institutions, social and cultural factors, economic factors and the market, and legal factors. Likewise, given the underlying and intervening variables which were effective on knowledge-oriented enterprises, strategies for implementation of knowledge-oriented leadership in such enterprises were identified including motivation-oriented strategies, education-oriented and cultural strategies, attraction and maintenance of competent labor force, financing based on the use of potential extra-organizational capacities, knowledge creation and knowledge acquisition, improving the atmosphere of participation and interaction, and infrastructure-oriented strategies. Knowledge-oriented leadership could have some consequences such as improved performance and competitive advantage of the firm, enhanced quality of working life and job satisfaction of employees, increased organizational belonging and improved emotional-mental engagement of employees, continuous improvement and development of employees' skills, retention of employees in the firm, and economic and social consequences.

Introduction: The purpose of the present study is to investigate the factors affecting political violence with emphasis on ethnic cleavage in West Azerbaijan province. Ethnic group relations are often associated with strife and tension in most societies. As long as group relations are normal in a society, there would be no problem for the social system. But when social groups, such as political groups and ethnic cultural interests, are attacked in terms of socio-economic interests, the social system becomes tense and social challenges, such as violence, arise in the society. Political violence means the use of force. It is a kind of inter-ethnic collective relation related to the realm of politics. Violence is a type of power that pursues a specific goal, and that is to define boundaries and prevent the exercise of another power. Aklaef (as cited in Salehi Amiri, 2009) believes that most of the violent ethnic conflicts are of a political nature and result from ethnic disputes over the position of groups in the political structure of such countries, as well as inter-group conflicts over the redistribution of power and the attainment of power. Frederick Barth believes that ethnic distinctions are the product of drawing and protecting borders, not the product of cultural differences that are obvious to the outside observer. Boundaries are always drawn in front of other people and are the basis for separating one group from another. Social boundaries are the opposite of objectified forms of social differences that are manifested in unequal access to resources (material and immaterial) and unequal distribution of social opportunities. Ethnic cleavages are social divisions and conflicts that go back to some manifestations of differences and structural incompatibility in a multi-ethnic society. This cleavage is widened by ethnic groups whose interests are in fundamental conflict with each other. This process leads to the acquisition of self-awareness and special values ​​for individuals belonging to each of these branched ethnic groups. These values ​systematically shape the collective identity of these conflicting groups and produce a blueprint for social behaviors and actions for members of these groups, thus creating a framework for violence and social conflict. Materials and Methods: This research is a quantitative survey study. The main tool used in the data collection stage was a researcher-made questionnaire. The statistical population of the study consisted of citizens between the ages of 18 and 65 years in West Azerbaijan province with about 2116684 people. In the present study, the multi-stage cluster sampling method was used. For sampling, Cochran sampling formulas were used based on which 384 samples were selected for the study. After determining the sample size according to the geographical extent of West Azerbaijan province, Khoy (the majority of Turkish-speaking individuals) and Salmas (Turkish and Kurdish-speaking) were in the first cluster from the north of the province, Urmia (Turkish and Kurdish-speaking) from the provincial capital, and the cities of Naqadeh (Turkish and Kurdish-speaking) and Mahabad and Piranshahr (the majority of Kurdish-speaking) from the south of the province were selected. Then, based on the method of geographical division in five geographical regions of the cities, two regions were randomly selected. Sampling was done in which their citizens randomly answered the questions of the questionnaire. To test the research hypotheses, Pearson correlation coefficient, analysis of variance, and multiple regression were used simultaneously with SPSS version 24 software. The reliability of the questionnaire was based on Cronbach's alpha (political violence 0. 82, ethnic cleavage 0. 81, poor observance of civil rights 0. 85, discrimination 0. 89, ethnic voting pattern 0. 80, and weak identity tolerance 0. 71). To test the validity of the questionnaire, structural validity and factor analysis techniques were used. Discussion of Results and Conclusions: The results of factor analysis on 14 questions of ethnic cleavage led to the extraction of three factors (ethnic denial, ethnic distance, and ethnic demarcation), with a specific value higher than one. Together, these three factors accounted for 53. 55% of the variance of the ethnic cleavage. Also, the average score of political violence was 2. 77, which is moderate to low compared to the score range (1 to 5). The average rate of ethnic cleavage in the opinion of the respondents was 2. 76, which is moderate to high compared to the score range (1. 29 to 4. 71). Analysis of the data from this survey showed that there was a direct and significant relationship between ethnic cleavage and its dimensions (ethnic denial, ethnic distance, and ethnic demarcation), poor observance of citizenship rights, discrimination, ethnic voting pattern, and poor identity tolerance with political violence. Simultaneous regression and path analysis showed that the variables of ethnic cleavage, ethnic voting pattern, weak observance of citizenship rights, discrimination, and the weakness of identity tolerance affected political violence and explained and predicted 28. 3% of the variance of political violence.