JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Year:2017 | Volume:4 | Issue:9 |Papers Count:10

The children of martyrs, notably those who are university students, conceal their sacrificial identity. Accordingly, the key question here is ‘why this happens?’. The present study primarily aims to investigate the social determinants of the concealment of sacrificial identity among martyr students (Shahed) in higher educational centers. Theoretically, this study is based on the grounded theory. Methodologically, this study employs semi-structured interviews with a sample of 22 martyr students (Shahed) in higher educational centers of Babolsar. The preliminary results of this study indicate that approximately 77 per cent of these students tend to conceal their sacrificial identity. Furthermore, more detailed analysis illustrate that the concealment of sacrificial identity among martyr students (Shahed) in higher educational centers is significantly associated with a wide range of determinants. This includes such key determinants as social stigmatization, social illusion on the families of martyrs’ special advantages over the public, varying attitudes towards the special advantages amongst the families of veterans and the public, the waning of the values of martyrdom and sacrifice in the society, the lack of social sympathy with the situations of martyr families, the growing distance of authorities with the values of martyrdom and sacrifice, the poor performance of the officials responsible for the propagation of the culture of martyrdom and sacrifice, insufficient propaganda about issues related to the eight-year war, an unreachable social expectation over the martyrs’ children to appear as perfect individuals, religious factors and socialization.

Civil society and democracy still remain as the most important characteristics of many countries in the contemporary world. Civil society consists of a range of none-governmental institutions that can impose powerful influence on the state. The key research question in the present analysis refers to how the concept of civil society has been represented in the press of Iran. The analysis focuses on the press of two main political parties in Iran: Reformists and Fundamentalists. Generally speaking, the research findings of the present analysis indicate that the representation of civil society in the press occurs through its three main components: state, citizenship, social participation. This general pattern applies similarly to the newspapers of both reformists and fundamentalists. However, more detailed analysis explores that this common pattern has been represented differently in the press of these two main parties: on the one hand, the representation of the concept of civil society in the reformist newspapers is significantly connected with democratic measures and public regulation. On the other hand, religious measures play a more evident predominant role in the representation of the concept of civil society in the fundamentalist newspapers, leading to the creation of a religious term for civil society so-called ‘Madianatol-Nabi’ (the city of the Prophet Mohammad). Finally, political discourse also imposes a powerful influence on the representation of these key concept and term in both reformist and fundamentalist press.

The pronatalist-oriented population policies can bring about varying consequences including the challenges associated with job opportunities needed for the new birth cohorts as they approach the working ages. The present study aims to examine whether such challenges truly happen to the large cohorts and whether such economic outcomes apply to all countries. In order to examine these two key questions highlighted above, this study employs a meta-analysis approach and reviews the contemporary literature conducted in varying contexts from around the world.The results of this analysis show that there are varying patterns about the effects of cohort size on unemployment rate. This suggests that such economic outcomes as unemployment are not exclusively the consequence of cohort size. In other words, the results emphasize the point that in order to explain properly the association between cohort size and unemployment rate, it is also important to consider a wider range of determinants. In sum, the large cohort of young population does not cause economic challenges for the society per se, rather it can open a demographic window of opportunity for economic growth subject to appropriate policies and timely planning.

Since 1990s researchers have demonstrated increasing interest in studying the association between institutions on one hand, and other issues including economic growth and development, investment, inflation and inequality on the other hand. This mainly lies in the fact that institutions play substantial role in reducing the costs of exchange, insecurity and risks. This evidently echoes the importance of studying the determinants of institutions, which has not received sufficient attention in the existing literature. Development accounts for a key determinant of institutions. The present study examines the effect of development on institutions on the basis of the governance index. The examination focuses on the Islamic countries of D8 during 1996-2014 and employs the auto-regressive method. The results of this study support the statistically significant and positive effects of development and human capital on institutions. On the contrary, institutions are negatively affected by abundant natural resources.

The present research focuses on the university students' occupational preference and examines its social determinants. The results discussed in this article are based on a survey which includes a sample of 400 students at Ferdosi University in Mashhad.According to the research findings of this analysis, three major types of occupational preference can be identifies: internal-oriented type of occupational preference, external-oriented type of occupational preference, and a combination of both internal-oriented and external-oriented types of occupational preference. Furthermore, the research findings indicate that occupational preferences are significantly associated with family factors, religious beliefs, and mass media.

This paper examines the patterns and determinants of postmodern family values from a generational perspective. The discussion of this paper is based on a survey conducted in Tehran city. The survey includes 600 individuals aged 18 years old and over who were selected on the basis of multistage cluster sampling method. Theoretically, the paper employs the theory developed by such scholars as Inglehart so-called ‘intergenerational values change’. According to the results of this analysis, the following patterns can be highlighted. First, the prevalence rates of postmodern family values among the first, second and third generations are 9.19 per cent, 14.49 per cent, and 21.71 per cent, respectively. Second, while the postmodern family values of the first generation are only limited in positive attitudes towards abortion and individual pleasure, those of the third generation include an additional value, that is, tolerance towards sexual affairs. Third, the postmodern family values among all three generations are significantly affected by religiosity. However, the strength of religiosity effect varies across the generations: the older the generation, the stronger the effect. Finally, the consumption of media plays an important role in the postmodern family values particularly among the first generation.

Right to city, as a key component of human rights, means that city belongs to its citizens who commit themselves to participate in their city. Right to city is recognized as a human right and not as a civil right. This suggests that human beings can enjoy of such a right, irrespective of their gender, age, race and socio-cultural characteristics. The present study examines the effects of desirability of urban space indicators on the right to city. It employs the Lefebvre's theory and the measures of Linch's Desirability of Urban Space. The examination is based on a survey including a sample of 305 individuals. According to the multivariate results of this analysis, the most important determinants of the realization of the right to city include participation in city indicator, allocation indicator, psychological and social indicators of urban space quality desirability, with standardized coefficients (Beta) of 21 per cent, 18 per cent, 19 per cent, and 16 per cent, respectively.

Social resilience refers to the capacity of a society to cope and adjust with challenges and changes. It relates to such social characteristics as age, gender, disability, socio-economic status, and social capital. The field of this study is the city of Isfahan that holds substantially high rates of unemployment and crime, despite its long and rich historical and socio-cultural backgrounds. This study aims to examine whether and how the rate of social resilience varies across the fifteen areas of this city. Methodologically, the present research employs a descriptive-analytic approach. It uses secondary data provided mainly through the 2011 population census. The data have been analyzed on the basis of TOPSIS technique and TOPSIS SOLVER software.The results of this analysis illustrate that the area 3 holds the highest rate of social resilience. This tends be mainly associated with a relatively larger number of religious-historical places and health clinics, transportation access, Internet services and safety. Then, the areas 5 and 1 hold the next highest ranks in terms of social resilience. The opposite applies to the areas 2 and 6 that indicate their lowest rate of social resilience, which can be explained by substantial prevalence of unemployment and crime in these areas.

This article examines the effects of religiousness and religious affiliation on political participation in Iran. It is based on a nationally-representative survey that has been conducted during 16 years. The key idea of this research relies primarily on the fact that the political participation rate is significantly associated with the level of religiousness. However, such an association has been hypothesized differently among two major Islamic sects in this analysis: it has been considered as a positive association between religiousness and political participation in Shi'a-dominated areas, whereas the association has been considered negative in Sunni-dominated areas. Generally speaking, the results of this analysis have indicated that Shi'a-dominated and Sunni-dominated areas hold a significantly different rate of political participation. However, this difference does not sit well with the research hypothesis outlined above. This suggests that the effects of religiousness on political participation are almost similar in Shi'a-dominated areas and in Sunni-dominated areas.

The place and effects of modernity on Iranian society have been a vital issue since the formation of Sociology discipline in Iran. This study focuses mainly on the concept of modernity and seeks an analytical model in order to measure this key concept in the Iranian society. Theoretically, this study is based on the social identity theory associated with the variable of modern identity. In addition, methodologically the present study relies mainly on several methods including exploratory studies, survey and structural modeling.Generally speaking, the key results of this study refer to the presentation of a specific model consisting of seven components for the purpose of measuring the place of modern identity in the context of Iran. The model has been developed on the basis of a sample of 1291 cases. The sample includes the cases both between the provinces and within them selected on the basis of the methods of multistage sampling and random sampling, respectively. Finally, the model has been adjusted based on the means of absolute and parsimonious fit indices.