NAMEH-YE OLUM-E EJTEMAI
Year:2006 | Volume:NEW | Issue:26|Papers Count:14

The concept of capital constitutes one of the richest explanatory frameworks in contemporary sociology and economics. Last four decades have witnessed transformation of the' concept of capital as a result of which new theories of capital such as human capital, cultural capital, and social capital have emerged. Among these, social capital is considered to be the most recent of the newly emerging theories. Social capital theory, sharing certain common contexts with capital, has maintained its conceptual continuity with capital in its classical as well with modern senses. However, compared with other forms of capital it is more metaphorical, so carrying less objectivity. In the context of theoretical and empirical literature, the concept of social capita has, at times, been used in a variety of different senses and functions. Therefore, it seems significant to aim at reaching a convergence by comparing and classifying definitions, functions, and finally the theoretical approaches as expounded within the respective area as regards such a new concept. This paper has undertaken such a task.      

Democratic urban management has a significant role in reducing urban problems such as poverty, informal settlement and pollution. Social capital theory is usually used for studying performance in local governments. But using predefined theories may neglect some important factors such as subjective meaning and the role of actors in the making of social reality especially in the context of developing countries. This paper studies the Iranian city-councils using grounded theory approach. The researchers interviewed 75 informants from councilors and mayors of 13 cities. Data analysis and theoretical model showed that centralized administration system and ambiguous laws are main factors contributing to "Lack of Institutionalization" of councils, and which limit their authority. "Council's members' education" and "quality of state managers' attitudes create the context that affects the phenomenon. The intervening conditions are "internal and external group relations", "municipalities financial and human resources", "local attachments", "experiences", and "education". Under the conditions described above, councilors adopt two strategies: "institutionalism" and "protectionism". These strategies, obviously, are followed by consequences. These consequences are "anxious", "participation rejection", "hopefulness", and "efficiency". Social capital theory was verified under the study's findings. Although social capital is useful in explaining the performance, but the lack of institutionalism is considered to be more important for the council performance in its Iranian context.      

The article, initially, considers a brief discussion of the main shifts in information and communications field, the introduction of Direct Broadcasting Satellites (DBS), and the concept of media policies in world today, with an emphasis on countries of Asia. A critical overview of policies of the Iranian government against public reception of TV programs accessible via DBS follows. The analysis policies currently adopted by thirteen Asian countries indicates that many of them have considered re-broadcasting of "appropriate" content in order to compensate for the domestic production shortcomings, and to attract audience for "controlled" services. Nevertheless, there exists a wide variation in terms of volume, type of content, language used, the extent and manner of content control application (censorship), number and type of ownership, management mode of the organization, and the distribution procedure for countries within the region. The question of satellite TV reception in Iran is not yet resolved, and it is criticized by the political figures, by the professionals and by the public. Now, after more than a decade since the prohibition policy of 1994 came into being, the public has uncontrolled access to hundreds of satellite TV channels. This has drastically reduced the applicability of the Prohibition Act, competitiveness of the national media, and effectiveness of the state intervention for policy design and execution. A survey on policies of the Asian countries shows that the utilization of the existing satellite programs is not incompatible with maintaining the cultural and political sensitivities. In other words, it is possible to use the satellite TV and maintain politico-cultural integrity.    

This article seeks to examine how the West, as a concept, is represented in papers written by students. Studying the journals, it is assumed, is essential for reaching an understanding of characteristics of a portion of social and political forces. Thus, the article aims at an understanding as to the semantic connotations of the West and attempts to formulate various discourses formed around the West's concept. Students papers published in the period of 1378-1382 (the Iranian calendar) are the corpus of our data. The theoretical framework is Michel Foucault's discourse, and that of Edward Said's Orientalism. The procedure used here is discourse analysis. The findings are indicative of three discourses of "fundamentalism", "exotism", and "nationalism", each representing the West differently. Innate differences of these discourses are attributed to their different primary presuppositions.  

The rapid expansion of cultural studies within last three decades, in the context of debates between modernism and postmodernism, has elevated the "everyday life" as a prominent category. With the extensive popularization of consumerism and advertisement, both of which have targeted everyday life, critical philosophical and sociological studies have come to be considered the main task of "critical" thinkers. All prominent theorists such as Roland Barthes, Theodore Adorno, Henri Lefebvre, and Jurgen Habermas, have produced categories that inevitably lead to the analysis of "everyday life". Each of these thinkers has thoroughly analyzed everyday life from his respective stance. Provided that the task of critical thinking is to avoid the abstract and reach the concrete, then the category of "everyday life" becomes the most significant subject in cultural studies. Thus, the move away from Cartesian subject towards "life-world" should be considered a motion closer to the concrete. This paper attempts to show how everyday life became a problematic, which demands theoretical as well social action solutions. The paper considers the ideas of thinkers who have tried to mitigate the problems faced by everyday life, and show the way out.

Social dilemma is a situation in which each actor is faced with two choices: defective and cooperative. Defective behavior results in more self interest for the actor. Yet, if a considerable number of actors behave in defective way, each one would sustain greater loss as opposed to the situation if the actors had chosen to behave cooperatively. Theoretical basis of social dilemma analysis consists of two theories: rational choice theory (especially its social version, including social rationality) and game theory. Factors affecting behavior in social dilemma situations are: situationa1 factors, personal factors, and action space. This paper uses survey method. The sample consisted of 730 persons aged 15 or more; residing in Tehran. For hypothesis testing, logistic regression was used. The findings show that between 65 to 85% of the respondents behaved cooperatively in social dilemma situations, while between 20 to 40% chose the defective way of behavior. Our hypotheses included Personality factors (religious tendencies, personality type, or attitude towards social values), Situational factors (belief in efficacy of collective acts, friendly or competitive circumstances dominating over the situation, communication among actors in situation, knowledge of outcomes of defective behavior in social dilemmas, previous experiences' impact), Action space factors (norms ruling over the action, type of relationship, and type of action situation) Our research hypotheses were  confirmed.

Emigration is a demographic subject, which similar to vital factors results in structural change in population of a region. Some demographers have defined emigration as a change in residence thus considering it simply as a movement from one place to another. Emigration constitutes a major problem for the deprived regions of Iran. The problem, which is on the increase in recent years, has exacerbated by moving away on the part of the specialized and the educated manpower from small towns to larger cities. Giving special attention to the deprived regions through judicious planning to remedy their deprivation has been expounded as an agenda issue since ever the Islamic Revolution succeeded, and the following efforts were made: to enhance infrastructure, to allocate quotas for entrance examinations of major universities, prioritizing native manpower recruitment, considering state incentives for employment in the deprived regions, allocating special budget to remedy deprivation Despite all this, the evidence of deprivation testifies to the fact that the deprived regions are still suffering from lack of specialized manpower. Moreover, not only has it been difficult for these regions to attract the educated manpower, but also they are losing their much needed meager manpower, that is, it has become very difficult to maintain the manpower in the regions which need those most. This paper is conducted with the aim of diagnosing factors which contribute to the maintenance of the specialized manpower in the deprived regions. The findings show that the policy of training native people to remain in the area has not succeeded. They also show that variables such as job satisfaction, type of employment, type of housing, and age, are involved in the decision to move out of a deprived region.  

One may think of an exact, a more distinct meaning to be attached to the notion of crisis. The notion of crisis is overstated in our everyday dialogues. This paper takes the task to review different perspectives on the concept of crisis. It then proceeds to connect it to the state. The state is considered to be one of the most important and effective foundations in the modern society. A crisis discourse has engulfed and dominated the state and the development theories after the World War n. The paper will also attempt to present a classification as to the possible relationships among the state, civil society, and the development. The classification distinguishes "perpetual developmentalism", "perpetual equivalence", and "perpetual anti-deve1opmentalism". It follows up considering two factors: a) the trajectory of development process, and b) how to implement the developmental policies. Then, this paper is based on some studies on the crisis in the undeveloped countries. Pointing to an unstable state, and trying to show a theoretical way out of the stagnant situation. The idea bears close relationship with the basic question taken by this paper: what are the basic attributes of a third-world state, in practice and in theory?