Journal of Iranian Cultural Research
Year:2015 | Volume:8 | Issue:1 (29)|Papers Count:8

What does "death" mean? How death is even understood? How do we face with the death of the self and dying of the other in the moment of sealed and inevitable fate? These are existential questions which are as old as humanity life. In this sense and in other words, in order to have a meaningful life, we need a meaningful and of course right confrontation with death of the self and dying of the other. In this respect, this is culture that provides the epistemic and existential structures for developing a meaningful life in the world, so I, You and S/He will be able to face with such a social and cultural existential event. It is obvious that the power supply of this development is indeed the cultural narratives of death and dying, and science, religion and mysticism are their representatives. Science is the representative of the secular culture, and religion is the representative of the religious culture and mysticism is also the representative of the spiritual culture. Using specific questions, the article seeks to explore this narrative through three texts (scientific, religious, and literary one): A) What cultural signs and social works have been used in the secular text of social theory of death to describe "death of the self and dying of the other".B) What religious signs and the epistemic and existential works have been used in the religious text of Nahj al-Balagha to describe "death of the self and dying of the other".C) What epistemic signs and the conscience - existential works have been used in the literary text of Masnavi-I Ma' navi to describe "death of the self and dying of the other".

National identity is the most comprehensive and important level of identity in all social systems, which is influential in all domains of culture, society and politics. Considering the significance of national identity as the most component of social order and integrity, the present study investigates the indices of national identity. Accordingly, the effect of cultural values on citizens’ attitudes towards national identity is to be studied. The present study is a survey research and the required data were collected via a researcher-made questionnaire. The population included the youth aged 16 to 40 years old in Kerman City, among whom 270 participants were selected as the sample size. The results of the research indicate that the degree of values of pluralism, patriarchy, power distance and avoidance of uncertainty are at relatively high levels. Furthermore, citizens’ national identity is at the moderate level. In addition, the findings indicate that the effect of variables of pluralism and power distance has significant effects on citizens’ national identity, and the coefficient and direction of the effect of this two variables on national identity is positive. In other words, participants who enjoy pluralist cultural values have more degree of national identity than those who have individualist characteristics and the first group are more likely to be located at higher classes of national identity than the second group. Also, the results indicate that participants who have cultural values with high power distance have more degree of national identity than those who have cultural characteristics with low degree of power distance. The findings indicate that variables of risk-taking and patriarchy have no significant effect on the degree of citizens’ national identity.

One of the Iran’s religious society’s concerns is preservation and promotion of religious identity. In the past few decades, globalization has affected various aspects of Iranian’s individual and social life. This study analyzes the effects of cultural globalization on the religious identity of two ethnic groups: Lurs residing in Noor-Abad Mamasani and Arabs living in the Kangan and environs. First of all, we reviewed the literature of this topic and then chose a theoretical framework based on the Giddens' ideas. The sample of research is 770 residents of 15 to 64 ages, living in the two above- mentioned towns that were selected by multistage random sampling. Using exploratory factor analysis technique, 10 life styles in Shiraz were found and named according to variable nature. The findings show a significant difference between Lurs and Arab ethnic group’s religious identity. Also results of the multivariate regression technique show that Religious Lifestyle, Scientific–Educational style, Reflection, Sports style, Awareness of Globalization, Cultural Participation style, and Mobile Style respectively explain 36.3% of the changes of religious identity.

The present study is aimed to develop a model for assessing public culture at universities and evaluating its indicators at public universities in Mashhad. The research follows an exploratory mixed approach. Research strategies in qualitative and quantitative sections are thematic networks analysis and descriptive- survey method, respectively. In the qualitative section, document analysis and semi-structured interviews with cultural experts are used as research tools. In this section, targeted sampling is carried out. In the quantitative section, a questionnaire which is developed based on the findings of the qualitative section is used as the research tool. Research population of the quantitative section consists of all the students who are admitted to public universities in Mashhad between 2009 and 2012. Sample size was calculated according to Cochran’s formula. Stratified sampling was used to select the sample. The results of the qualitative section led to the identification of 44 basic themes which are referred to as the micro indicators. These themes were clustered into similar groups. Then, 10 organizer themes were identified and recognized as macro indicators. In the next phase, importance factor of each indicator is determined according to the AHP method. The results of the qualitative assessment of indicators at public universities of Mashhad show that the overall cultural index declines during the years the student attends the university. Additionally, the highest correlation exists between national identity and revolutionary identity. The only negative correlations are observed between family and two indicators including social capital and cultural consumption. The results of the present study can be used to assess the state of public culture among university students and also be considered as a basis for assessing cultural planning.

In this article, we studied student dissertations in cultural studies departments and articles of two important journals (Iranian Journal of Cultural Research and Quarterly Journal of Iranian Association for Cultural Studies & Communication). Our main questions are how the condition of reception possibility is assumed in Iranian cultural studies? How we can classify our audiences? In particular, how and who is the audience in Iran? This analysis shows that most of the Iranian cultural studies oriented to urban middle class of Tehran, instead of lower middle class or labor class. The result demonstrates that, most of scholars consider audience as an active subject that resists against text massages. Hence, they overlook the role of ideology and power in construction of subject and audience. As if, a type of optimistic cultural studies was adapted in an authoritarian political context. This approach on resistance is called resistance ideology by the authors; a situation in which we believe resistance is a sort of relieving and appeasing drug for critical cultural scholars.

Ideology is a meaningful structure that involves in production, reproduction and changing unequal power relations. By means of meaning, ideology connects to discourse and language which is the device of meaning production. Ideologies are generated and transformed in actual discursive events. Press headlines are also discursive events. Based on critical discourse analysis and by using Van Leeuwen's theoretical framework (1996) and socio-semantic features of the framework like exclusion, inclusion, appraisement, association and differentiation, this study will try to analyze the way of representation of ideologies about Iran's nuclear program in a selection of national and international newspapers’ headlines during 2011-2012. By determining and comparing the frequency of the socio-semantic features during 2011- 2012, this question will be answered that how ideology is represented in national and international newspapers about Iran's nuclear program by using socio-semantic features during 2011- 2012, and whether the way of representation and the amount of these features are the same in both groups? To do this 242 headlines of two national newspapers, Keyhan and Iran, and two foreign newspapers, The Washington post and The Guardian were selected. Then the headlines were analyzed by using an analytical–descriptive method. The findings showed that both local and international newspapers use the same kind of features to reflect the news, but the amount of the features, especially in using of exclusion, and the way they are used, is different according to the newspaper's policy. In fact by utilizing specific features, the newspapers actually show the ideology they advocate. Actually having different ideologies have led to use the features in different ways.

The subject of the present article is to evaluate the host community attitudes about expanding social pathologies caused by the development of tourism in the city of Hamedan. The survey method (descriptive–analytical) was used in this study and researcher made questionnaire in the form of Likert was used. For this purpose, the entire population was divided into two different groups, including local residents, and shopkeepers who depend on tourism activities. The theoretical framework used in this paper is the Travis Hirschi's social control theory. Also, in this study, stratified random sampling method was used with a combination of male and female, between the ages of 18 and higher, and accordingly, the statistical sample selected on the basis of the Cochran formula is estimated 400 persons. To assess the reliability of research tools, as well as Cronbach's alpha is used, which its coefficient is 0.83. Information collected through questionnaires, after encoding, using the statistical software SPSS, have been analyzed. The results of this study show that tourism in the city of Hamedan partly is developed. The results indicate that, there is a significant relationship between tourism development and the attitudes of respondents to increase social pathologies. With regard to significant level achieved (Sig=0.000), and with 95 confidence level, it can be said that this relationship is significant. The intensity of the relationship between the two variables is equal to 0.20. The results show that citizens in Hamedan about the negative impacts, and rating of developed social pathologies, have considered the distribution of Anti-cultural items with the average of 3.33 of 5 as a factor of social pathologies with the highest rank, and the spread of gambling with the average of 2.04 of 5 as a factor of social pathologies with the lowest rank.