GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH
Year:2001 | Volume:16 | Issue:2 (61)|Papers Count:12

After the Renaissance in Europe, research methodology in physical science changed dramatically. Empiricism and positivism became two major features of physical science. Great successes and new discoveries in physical science, one after another, gave rise to the idea that scientific objectivity is the only thing needed in any scientific research. Inevitably, humanities and social science adopted the new methodology unquestioningly, to match up with the accepted norms of the time in order to gain status and prestige. Nevertheless, the new methodology was not in accordance with the nature of the subjects studied in those fields. The subject in physical science is inorganic matter, while in humanities and social science the researcher deals with man with all his mental, social, and cultural Complexities.It is not then appropriate to study man from a physical scientist's view. Rather, one has to put himself in the subject position, understand and interpret its totality. This is what hermeneutics deal with. It has to be extended from scriptural interpretation to the vast field of human life.

The location of industrial plants in rural areas is an important factor for settling economical, social and cultural complications in rural regions. In recent studies, it has been indicated that Mashhad industrial area locating in Tabadkan, 15km northeast of Mashhad, has considerable significance in the rural regions nearby. It has attracted a considerable amount of unemployed population from nearby villages and therefore plays a great role in developing their quality of life. The expansion of industrial plants in rural regions can develop combined activities of agriculture and industry, and increase the rate of employment and income in these regions.

The aim of this article is to set forth issues which are to be considered in organizing politico - administrative system of the country and facilitate the trend of persistent development. The methodology used is studying written materials and analysing the matter from a geo-political point of view. The concepts and patterns of the spatial distribution of power have first been explained, and then with a historical review of structured patterns in the country, the trend of the development of the local organizations in Iran is described.Finally, the current political situation of the country and attention needed to be paid to the importance and role of local - people organizations in the spatial distribution of political power has been set forth.

When the City Islamic councils started their work in 1998, issues such as people's participation in the city affairs and resolving different problems in the cities were among the most important ones to be dealt with. People complained about the old and inefficient rules and administrative regulations in the municipalities. They demanded reform and the reconstruction of the underlying principles in the management system. Unfortunately, some, if not all, of these rules and regulations continued to be used in the urban management system. This led to people's great dissatisfaction and as a result disagreement among the municipalities, the people, and the city council.This article, first, aims to discuss comprehensively the problems and issues in the city management at both national as well as local levels. Second, it deals with a plan for reconstructing the municipality structure, including rules, tasks, service delivery, etc.It finally presents a new paradigm for the improvement of the urban management system for the long, middle, and short - term projects and activities.

Many of the social, economic, and even political problems in Iran in the two periods between the years 1978 - 88 and 1988 - 98 can be studied comparatively. In studying these problems, the marginal border areas, particularly the western and eastern regions, are of special importance. In this article the development of employment rate is studied in one of these areas.A quantitative analysis of employment rate in khorassan reveals different conditions in these two periods. Though, the general employment rate shows a negative trend, the substantial decrease in service industry (104.8 to 30.1) as compared to the considerable growth in the productive industry (9.3 to 23.8) is viewed as a positive change in the labor market. However, in a large area of the province, including Tybad, Torbat Haydarya (and khaf), Gonabad, Torbat Jam, Birjand (and Nihbandan) there is a considerable decrease in employment rate, in both manufacturing industry as well as the whole economy. In large areas of the province, particulary in Ferdows, Torbat Haydarya, Gonabad, Sabzivar, Torbat jam,Birjard, and Isfaraeen, the high rate of employment in agriculture sector can be considered a positive, though short term, change. The development in other sectors requires necessary infrastructural development in the rural and agricultural activities.

The present article studies and analyses the employment process in Yazd province in the 20 year period of 1355 to 1375 and its future planning up to the year 1400. Research models and computer softwares have been used. In the period under study, the employment rate in Yazd province has been higher than that of the whole country and some 4715 Job opportunities have been created. However, only 11.7 percent of the employees are working in their field of specialty. The most successful section in job creation is the financial and commercial section. With the creation of one Job opportunity, there have been 7.1 individual employments in the financial -commercial section, 3.1 in construction industry and 3 in services section. It is expected that Yazd Province requires 8148 Job opportunities annually. These jobs can be created provided that the restrictions on services and industry sections are reduced, the economic growth rate reaches about 5.6 percent, the necessary investment in the productive activities are enforced and increased and finally rules and regulations as well as management procedures are improved and stabilized.

Culture distinguishes human beings from animals. People's cultural and not social awareness is regarded humane. Animals have some groupings. Even some forms of collective life are found among them. Specific cultural relations, that form symbols among human beings, and what constitute their everyday life distinguish (and separate) them from animals. Every culture has its own intellectual expressions. Regarding all these, individuals adopt the customs and beliefs of their society. This cultural choice leads people in a society to develop some uniform social peculiarities. In this article, we have tried to present a profile of these cultural peculiarities in marriage, death and mourning among Maraquians.

The united states census in 1990 reports that the number of Iranians living in the U.S. has doubled over the last decade. The Iranian population is mainly composed of three groups of students, their families and the exiles. A significant number of Iranians arrived in the U.S. after 1975 to continue their studies at the university level. Naturally, based on the academic theories of migration and geographic distribution of ethnic groups, they must have had a diffused settlement patterns. However, this expectation did not materialize over a relatively short period of time, Iranian immigrants displayed a large geographic concentration in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and to a smaller degree in Washington D.C and New York metropolitan area. Now, two decades after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, a new generation of Iranians is growing in the U.S. they are a group born to an immigrant parentage who will soon become the core of an ethnic group. Though places like Los Angeles and New York will continue to retain their status as the core of Iranian communities for many years to come, the settlement patterns of this emerging population born outside their native home in future depend on (1) the degree to which they adhere to the parents memories and heritage,(2)their integration into the larger American social context where they were born and developed.

Landslides are one of the important natural hazards in the North of Khorassan province, north east of Iran, especialy in Shirvan-Bojnord area, north west of the province. They are often prompted, almost universally, because of the lithology, slope of the terrain and natural and human actions that may either add to the operating gravitational stresses or reduce the resistance to sliding of the soils comprising the slope. Landslides cause intensive damages to the roads, bridges, human dwellings, agricultural lands, orchards, forests etc. resulting in the loss of property as well as life.In this paper an attempt has been made to illustrate Namanloo Landslide. The slides situated about five hundred meters in the east of Namanloo village.The studied area lies between latitude 370. 30 to 370N and longitude 58 0 to 580.15 E within the Kopet - Dagh Range (Fig. 1). Physiographically this area includes the catchments area of the Barezoo Dam.The rock units of the area in stratigraphic order are: Tirgan and Sarcheshmeh Formations. The Tirgan Formation consists of limestone with some minor shale intercalation which is known as a cliff forming unit in the studied area. The Sarcheshmeh Formation consists of light green gray shale with thin layer of limestone intervals.The studied area illustrates interaction between local geology and the long term climatic conditions as well as tectonic which will result in significantly different landforms with varying degree of susceptibility to land sliding.

For a long time, different nations were following their national development goals in GNP, percapita income and other economic development indicators. For these countries, achieving a high level of economic development was the main objective of development. But after some time, most of the developed countries discovered that their high GNP growth rates have failed to reduce the socio -economic deprivation of substantial sections of their population. For this reason, this conclusion emerged that economic development, does not necessarily create human development.The first movement to evolve socio-economic indicators dates back to 1929, but there was no serious attempt made until 1990. In this year the UNDP provided an operational definition of Human development, on the basis of three indicators of life expectancy at birth, adult literacy rate and real GDP percapita to measure the level of human development in different countries. After that the UNDP publishes an annual report under the title of "Human Development Report".Although the indicators used by UNDP do not cover different dimensions of human development, from the view point of techniques of making indicators scale free and calculating composite index. They have some basic problems. Among various methods, the UNDP uses "Deprivation score". In the process of making indicators scale free and calculating composite index it not only creates a shift in origin and thereby loss of information but also the obtained development gap differs from that of real situation. This paper criticizes the method of UNDP and suggests a new method in this regard.