Social Welfare
Year:2010 | Volume:10 | Issue:38|Papers Count:19

Objectives: The awareness of citizens leads to access to their rights. In addition to natural rights (that are noted in many investigations) people have rights that are called social rights. This survey investigates some rights that are related to the responsibilities and missions of urban management. With revising of the notion of active citizenship, citizens need purposive participation. So activeness is required for being a perfect citizen. This survey investigates the condition of active citizenship in Tehran society and the relation between citizens' awareness of the citizenship rights and the development of active citizenship, municipality's accountability, and transparency.Methodology: in this survey citizens of three regions of Tehran are selected 381. Questionnaire was used for data gathering and Spss version 15 and Lisrel version 8.53 for analyzing. One-sample t-test, Independent Samples T Test, Analysis of variance, Repeated Measures, Pearson test and path analysis were applied for analyzing.Findings & Results: increasing of citizens' awareness of rights is related to the development of active citizenship, unicipality's accountability, and transparency. Likewise level of awareness and active citizenship in different departments of Municipality are various, so it is strongly suggested that city managers should set their correction planning according to continental approaches for unsuitable quality and in some departments the suitable required situation should be kept.

Objective: Citizens have many rights and commitments. "Citizenship commitments" induce social order and make social affairs predictable. Such a concept due to its nature and meaning holds relation with entire subjects and debates of currently human and social fields. Method: This research is a survey on citizens over the age of 18 in Tehran city. Sampling method is compound of classified and random method. Social capital has two dimensions: participation and trust. It is measured by personal and impersonal trust and participation in privacy and public spheres. insecurity has four dimensions, financial, collective, thinking and body insecurity. Relative social deprivation measured by compare of self with generalized others. Anomy has measured in four dimensions of social, cultural, economical and politic anomy. Citizenship commitment include behavioral and sense of (generalized) commitments. Sense of commitment measured by level of belonging to the society and country and behavioral commitments measured by respect to the law, pay tax, tamper, etc. Findings: social capital and universalism have significant positive impact and feeling of insecurity and social anomy had significant negative impact upon citizenship commitments. In addition, feeling of insecurity has three indirect impacts upon citizenship commitments via social capital, universalism and social anomy. Women have more commitment than men. Also older people have more commitment than younger. Results: There is relation between micro and macro levels. In order to analysis the affecting factors on citizenship commitments, it is necessary to take the role of macro structure in to account, especially power structure. Thus despotism makes a social psychology which reduces citizenship commitments. It can be concluded that despotism decrease citizenship commitments and in the extreme it could delay going toward civil society and it could reproduce structures related to despotism.As most important research variable feeling of insecurity has direct and indirect effect on citizenship commitment. It has indirect effect via social capital, universalism and anomy. The best result of this research is that despotism can be most important factor that affect on citizenship commitment.

Objective: Citizenship identity as it is understood from the component words is a kind of distinction and recognition of intimates from outsiders which has a historical background. Meaning of citizenship holds the concepts such as rights, responsibilities and duties, as well as a sense of belonging that in accordance with others and executive agencies will be meaningful and Indicates a kind of "institutionalized acceptance" in the scale of values, knowledge and consciousness, abilities, skills and expectations of society.Method: It is a cross-sectional survey and population is people 15 years old and above resident in Tehran with a 450 sample in 30 locality located in up, middle and down of town from 10 Tehran regional municipality. Tool of this survey was questionnaire and its validity was confirmed by the formal and content method through the expert group and its Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.705.Findings: citizenship identity of 80.6 percent of respondents is weak and moderate Among citizenship identity dimensions, assessment of democratic norms, civil commitment and enjoyment of citizenship rights respectively (average 34.8%, 36.86% and 37.72%) were the lowest values in respondents view. By multivariate analysis, the model selected for this study had four variables, social trust, sense of belonging, individual and collective identity explained 38.3% of variance of the dependent variable.Results: In order to promote and increase the citizenship identity in horizontal dimension (people relations within the community) collective identity and sense of general belonging must be strengthened, and in the vertical dimension (citizens and government relations) before anything should promote and restore people's trust to the officials.

Objective: Citizenship is not just a situation in which a person has a set of rights and duties, but it serves the two ideas of situation and feeling. Feeling of citizenship is an important aspect of citizenship that plays a great role in strengthening social bases in a society. Feeling refers to view and attitudes, and citizenship in its full meaning is an attitude. Citizens should be such individuals whose behaviors benefit their community i.e. they should be good citizens. Citizenship feeling is a key motivation for the practice of citizenship. Thus, it is clear that feeling of citizenship has great importance in creating the status of citizenship and it is a necessity to prevent deep gaps in contemporary democracy and lots of social inconvenience has root in weak citizenship feeling. As amongst different groups in society-university students due to their population in Iran, special views and their effectiveness on the social attitudes-have great value, this article attempts to study and measure citizenship feeling among the students of Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz.Method: The study is based on a questionnaire survey among 386 students of Shahid Chamran University of Ahwaz using. stratified sampling method in term of faculty. In order to enhance validation of the respective questionnaire, face validity is used and in the research there applied Cronbach's Alpha test and the co-efficient obtained for reliability of citizenship feeling index is 0.76.Findings and Results: variables such as parents education, as well as the proportion to which individuals follow and discuss the news, and social and political events have meaningful effects on the feeling of citizenship while variables such as sex, ethnicity, level of studies and field of studies have no meaningful effects on it.

Objectives: social capital is a concept developed in sociology an also used in business, organizational behavior, political science and economics. In this article the process of social capital formation in a sample of university students is reported.Method: To develop an empirical model, we have assumed that individuals have two kinds of sources to form their social capitals: "identity sources" and "knowledge sources". Moreover, we assumed that these sources are "necessary sources" not "sufficient sources". The social capital would be produced, if these sources could be evolved to the social trust, the social norms and the social nets. Therefore, the research tries to answer this question: to what extent do these sources affect the social capital formation. The research method is survey. A sample of 199 students were randomly selected from a list of registered students for 2008 in the Faculty of Administrative Studies and Economics at the University of Isfahan (Iran).Findings: For estimation of the empirical model we used the OLS method to find how the "identity" and "knowledge" sources affect the internal values of individuals. For this, human capital was used as the main proxy of knowledge sources and the religious beliefs was used as the main proxy of identity sources.Results: The estimation results show that, in the selected sample, the identity sources (religious beliefs) has had a positive and significant effect on the social capital formation, though, there is no such a relationship between the social capital formation and the knowledge sources (human capital). Furthermore, we found that males had a higher level of social capital than females.

Objections: Today, one of the issues that perpetuate social and sustainable relationships plays an effective role in society, is social capital. The main purpose of this article, the role of mass media measurement in increasing social capital among households, the city is Khormoj. Theoretical frame work from theorists and social capital in particular is Bordiou. Four indicators of social capital of trust and reliability, type norms, join social networks and knowledge and attention to public affairs, political and social operation and mass media in the media print and electronic media is considered.Method: This paper survey methods and tools questionnaire interviews of 400 households, the city of the table Lin sampling and random sampling were systematically collected information was to obtain validity and reliability of tool Face validity and Cronbach alpha was used To evaluate the assumptions of correlation and mean comparison test and evaluate the research model of regression were performedFindings: Results of research shows that social capital variables in both print and electronic media after the four dimensions of social capital (trust and reliability, type norms, join social networks and knowledge and attention to public affairs, political and social) relationship is signifcant. Naturally, at the regression between two variables the membership at the nets and the social consiousness as the social capital dont have any correlation and with the others dimension have correlation.

Objectives: This paper investigates the relationship between social capital and collective action in some rural areas of Fars province and at the same time study determining factors affecting the social capital formation.Method: This research was carried out with survey method in the 12 villages of Fars province and selected a sample of 509 head of households.Findings: among indicators of social capital, trust has the highest effect on collective action and among determinants, empowerment, place attachment and communication had most effect on social capital.The results of research showed that eight variables, (number of household members, education of head of household, wealth index, house ownership, place attachment, empowerment, communication and type of village) from thirteen variables considered as determinants of social capital have a significant relation with Social capital.

Objective: we measured concept of bridging social capital by a new tool. All items used in the scale are in agreement with the theoretical literature on this concept.Method: The research method was survey. The sample population was 376 students of Isfahan university which were sampled through cluster sampling of multiple stages. After making a list and confirming the validity of questions by professors of social work and sociology, its reliability was confirmed through cronbach alpha coefficient. Findings: Bridging social capital must be measured in three different dimensions: Different Interests, Different Lifestyle, and out groups.Results: Our scale is not only highly reliable, but also valid.

Statement of the problem: In this article relationship between social trust and civil society (with emphasis on voluntary associations) is empirically examined. In addition, this article attempts to answer this question: what kind of relationship is there between voluntary associations membership and social trust? Method: 457 students of Mazandaran University were chosen and the questionnaires were distributed among them according to proportionate stratified sampling. Findings: Members of voluntary associations did not have higher social trust compared with non-members, but the members of these associations, had higher civil society variables (awareness of social news, satisfaction of life, reciprocity norms and positive attitude toward law enforcement) and fewer non-civil society variables (insecurity, feeling of opportunism and feeling of alienation) and this variables had relationship with social trust.Results: voluntary associations are important for having more civil society variables (such as reciprocity norms and positive attitude toward law enforcement) and less non-civil society variables (such as feeling of insecurity and feeling of alienation) but since civil society variables were in low level and non-civil society variables were in high level, voluntary associations could not show high level of social trust directly.

Problems statement: New millennium started while more than half of world population lives in cities. This issue requires attendance of the citizens in affairs management along with necessity of equipment, demands and needs. The important point is barriers and prohibiting factors which prevent participation. This article intends to answer these questions by reliance on research findings in 2009 that how much the Tehran citizens tend to participate in urban affairs and what factors they follow and what their contripation in urban affairs?Methodology: It's a survey using questionnaire and interview to gather information. For sampling, districts of the city were classified in terms of economic and social differences and then 1370 families were studied on the basis of population of each group in 22 districts of Tehran.Finding: Reinforcement of participation requires motivation, feeling of attachment to others and societies. The more the scope of attachment to city and district, the more the tenency of person to participation n urban affairs. Reinforcement of participation equires awareness, trust, satisfaction feeling and tendency to cooperation with urban associations and establishing strong relationship between citizens and urban managers. There should be trust and experience of cooperation with urban associations so that people become satisfied in addition to better performance. When the people are not sufficiently aware and are not informed of the strategies, they will not be satisfied with associations relating to ubran affairs and consequently, there will be no other participation. Although extent of participation of the persons in Tehran urban affairs is law, there are some differences between the districts.Results: Participation in urban affairs can be regarded as external requirements of the urban problems which are realized by democratizing the society, decentralizing and empowering different classes. In this regard, organized, Formal and planned models will be the best strategies along with spontaneous participations.

Objectives: Goal-directed subsidies because of its nature can affect all aspects of Iranian life. This scheme is not only an economic program but also affects other aspects of social life including: welfare and economic situation of society, labor market, income, expenditure and consumption pattern models of family and social problems such as poverty and inequality, drug abuse, family problem, etc. It is clear that diagnosis of all positive and negative outcomes of this scheme can be useful for mediating negative outcomes and improving positive outcomes.Method: this study is a critical review on the effects of goal-directed subsidies on some social problems in Iran.Findings and Results: Based on this review it can be argued that goal-directed subsidies affect social problems directly and indirectly.

Objectives: To implement goal-directed subsidies policy in framework of the its law is being seriously followed by state. Implementing this policy as it has been defined in the law could be a deep surgery of economy with big negative consequences both in demand and supply sides if its theoretical foundation is wrong. Hence, this paper aims to evaluate the theoretical sufficiency of Neoclassical Big Bang approach to economy reforms.Method: The used method in this paper in called as critical analytical approach in which theoretical fallacies of goal-directed subsidies policy has been argued and documented to relative data. After introducing the Big Bang approach to economy reforms and its theoretical foundation, it's criticized using a structural-institutional approach to main causes of Iranian economic problems and showed that this policy will fail in reaching to the defined aims due to its incorrect perception of main causes of problems. It seems that this policy is based on some methodological mistakes in estimation of subsidies and also identifying the poor which have been argued in the rest parts of paper.Findings: If the main root of Iranian economic problems is related more to organizational inefficiencies than price inefficiencies, goal-directed subsidies policy could not be a correct policy in treating the problems. Overestimation of subsidies which is related to some wrong methodological perceptions of subsidies could lead to wrong price decision making. There are two errors in identifying the poor which could decrease the efficiency of this policy.Result: If there is a necessity to make a price reform in economy it would be better to follow the graduate price reform.

Background: Theoretically, a vital factor in development has been the resilience and strength of socio-economic system to confront instabilities and crises. The precaution, however, is that an error might be committed, where, instead of finding the root causes of diseases we are mobilizing the forces to confront the signs of illness, leaving the diseases to grow and damage the lesser developed sectors and areas.Research Method: We have tried to illustrate analytically the negative impact of shocks going to be injected to energy derivatives emphasizing mainly on agricultural sector and evaluating it in terms of social justice. Findings & Results: Shock therapy in agricultural sector is a baseless attempt and would not lead to the expected result. However, due to certain reasons that I have classified them under five headings showing that agriculture sector being inflexible enough and highly sensitive to outside shocks. It may generate instabilities of various kinds leading to deterioration of economic welfare and stagnatory tendencies in national economy. We have discussed the main reasons for such anemia and revealing reasons for such baseless impression to regard it a step towards social justice. In the end, in order to avoid such shock therapy we have given some suggestions which the most important among them are giving Priority to non-price variables, and paying more attention to the vulnerability of agriculture sector and rural development and its structural and institutional requisities.

Evaluation of agricultural policies is an important issue in agricultural economics literature. Economists evaluate policies on base of their welfare effects. The objective of this study is Outcome subsidies removing for wheat and bread and its effect on producers and consumers. The minimization of changes in welfare loss is used in this study. The results of the welfare outcomes in wheat market show that government protects consumers more than producers by using consumption subsidy and guarantee price simultaneously. The optimizations of governments' policy in wheat market reduce governments' cost and welfare loss by reduction in protection from consumers. The results of optimization in wheat market policies shows that government costs and loss of social participation through lowering the main consumer protection were reduced. Per capita consumption of bread and share the cost of household food costs after adopting the optimum level of policy tools will dramatically change and optimal level of policy decisions on the bread cost share of rural household is more than urban households.

Objective: Poverty alleviation is an essential step to achieve economic development. This is why identification exercise is so crucial. Traditionally, different aspects of insecurities have not be taken into poverty measurement. Many types of insecurities have adverse impacts on household welfare. Identifying vulnerability of household can serve identification of the poor households. Methodology: This study measures degree of vulnerability of households to poverty in city of Tehran. The poor households' characteristics are some of the main causes of their poverty persistence. The poor households usually suffer from lack of adequate education of their head of household. The large size of the poor households is another factor affects their poverty persistence. Gender and age of the poor head of households are two important characteristics affect degree of their vulnerability. Obviously employment status and income of the head of households are two crucial factors determining their vulnerability. Data used in this study is pooled micro-data of household expenditure surveys from 1993–2007, collected by Statistical Center of Iran. Findings & results: Findings of this study can provide a guide for subsidy targeting. The logit model has been used to measure degree of vulnerability of the household residents of the city of Tehran. Some of the findings show that the larger is the size of the households, the higher is the degree of vulnerability. Age and gender of the head of households are two main determinants of the household vulnerability. The level of education of the head of household is another important determinant of vulnerability to poverty. The higher is the level of education, the lower is degree of vulnerability. Employment status is another important determinant of vulnerability to poverty, it is expected.