Iranian Journal of Sociology
Year:2009 | Volume:9 | Issue:3-4|Papers Count:10

Citizenship stems from the mutual relations of the state and the individual.These relations involve, on the one hand, the state’s support of the individual.In the present article, the concept of citizenship is defined using three basic elements: political identity, equality of participation and legal equality. Political identity is characterized with identity with the nation-state, equality of participation is characterized with the right to elect and being elected, legal equality is characterized with the equa I rights of distribution and equality of opportunities. The results of the secondary analysis of the data show that, first, the four empirical dimensions of citizenship are in the following order in terms of the contributions they make to the formation of this concept: sense of equality of opportunities, sense of equal rights of distribution, sense of political identity and, finally, sense of equality of participation. Second, the sense of civizenship with respect to the three elements of equality of opportunities, equal distribution of rights and equality of participation is rather moderate, whereas the sense of political identity is very strong. Third, the intensity of the four dimensions of citizenship is almost the same among various ethnic, religious, professional and educational groups, with the social strata hardly affecting the sense of citizenship. The weakness of the sense of citizenship in the three areas mentioned and the strength of the sense of political loyalty shows, on the one hand, a drop in the resources of civil legitimacy and, on the other hand, the existence of other resources of legitimacy, specially religious legitimacy. This explains the fact that, in spite of the weak record of the state in safeguarding the rights of citizenship, the sense of loyalty to the state is still strong among Iranian citizens. This, it is suggested, is because the religious resources of legitimacy compensate for the drop in the resources of civil legitimacy.

In this study, the mani question is: How is the differetiation of the nilitary organizations from the institution pelitrcally formed? According to the present texts and their theretical frameworks, the differetiation could be defined by two basic categories of: Fromalization and professlonalization.The indices of formalization were: division of labour, and the punishment / reward system for organizational promotion.The indices for professionalization are: sepcialized education and a triple -function for professionalization.The study is a historical comparative work, so it could be categorized as a qualitative research. The main findings are that through the history, both categories of differentiation were developed and complicated. But in Iran, in different from the other countries, specially United States with its decentralization system, the professionalism has less developed and under the domination of the central political system, it could not acheived a developed professional autonamy.

Nowadays, fear of crime (feelings of insecurity) has emerged as a distinct social fact and even more important than the crime itself. Most of the researches in Iran have done in a descriptive manner and focused on demographic factors. However, findings of these researches show that there were not feelings of security (subjective) compared to the security (objective) ones. Furthermore, fear of crime can be influenced by a number of factors in micro, meso and macro level so that the police have no control over them.The present study pursues two main goals: first, the examination of theoretical and empirical literature of fear of crime and feelings of insecurity (property and personal). Second the determination of the extent of fear of crime and some factors which influence it. Findings of the this study that was carried out on a sample of citizens in zanjan city by using survey method shows that they have not been very fearful and contextual factors (perceived risk of victimization, satisfaction of neighborhood, attitude towards local police and residential region) have more explanatory power than personal factors (e.g. age, education, income).

During the recent years we witness some of non-Sociology graduates have been accepted in Sociology at M.A. or Ph.D. level. Since studying this subject may improve our knowledge about the condition of sociology in Iran, as well as other related issues, it is considered to be useful. The main aim of this article is to explore and analyze the so-called subject. For this reason, the author attempted to categorize the following questions of the research in three parts:-How did respondents evaluate their previous field of study?-How did respondents become interested in Sociology?-What are respondents current evaluations and orientations towards sociology?The data collection was carried out in terms of survey method and through interview with 125 individuals who were either Sociology or Social Research students at M.A. /Ph.D. level or graduates from the state universities. This research was performed in 1387 (2008) and suggests analysis about some aspects of the subject.

The internet is a new medium with a different nature than its predecessors while at the same time it contains almost all of their functions within its reach. Thus, the internet brings about social changes more considerably among the young generation who have, as in elsewhere, proved to be the primary internet users in Iran. This situation offers the possibility of shaping a globally recognized 'Y generation' in Iran. The members of Y generation are those who have become acquainted with new Information & Communication Technologies (lCTs) from their early teenage and now are moving towards the end of their twenties.In the present article, we will see how effectively the Iranian youth have exploited the communicative capabilities of internet. Based on particular characteristics of the Iranian society, different social groups found internet a suitable site for self-presentation and establishment of communication networks. To achieve their social and cultural ends, Iranian women have enjoyed the facilities of the internet-sometimes even over-reaching the men in their usage. The internet has paved the way for the emerging of new kinds of norm-breakings which could not be dealt with by traditional methods. By the recent years, the internet has been exploited as an effective medium for promotion and diffusion of religion among the Iranian youth. This study, using the methodology of meta-analysis, reveals that the Internet has been influential, if not to say central, in shaping an ‘Iranian Y generation’. Furthermore, we have elaborated the characteristics of this Iranian Y generation.

In view of concerns arising from cultural and ethnic diversities in the Iranian society and their consequences, this paper, which is the result of a national research project, will discuss the relationship between national and ethnic identities among Iranian ethnic groups. According to an analytical framework based on symbolic interaction, especially the viewpoints of Mead and Blumer, the main assumption of this paper is that Iranians enjoy a multifaceted identity and there is no incompatibility among identity sources. That is, collective cultural identity of the Iranian society comes from a number of sources and due to its gradual, historical and continued nature; there is no incompatibility among those sources. Survey method and questionnaire has been used to test that assumption. The unit of study is “individual” while the unit of analysis includes 6 ethnic varieties of Iran as Kurds, Baluches, Turks, Arabs, Turkmens, and Lor people. The population was over 18 years of age and included residents of 9 big cities inhabited by those ethnic groups. Samples were chosen through multiphasic sampling method.The results show that both ethnic and national identities are simultaneously prominent among Iranian ethnic groups and there is no conflict between them. Also, there is a positive and powerful relationship among cultural and social aspects of ethnic identity, on the one hand, and cultural (and to some extent social) aspects of national identity. Of course, there is a negative relationship between their political aspects.

Theoretical tradition of dependency/world-system relies on the separation between core and periphery countries in the world. This tradition asserts that global system of capitalism, with transfer of resources from less developed third world countries to the developed core countries, prevents their national and independent development and thus promote their peripheralization within international division of labor. In other words, the developed core countries, seize economic surplus from the periphery countries and allocate it for their own more and more development. On the contrary, due to the lack of access to their own economic surplus, the periphery countries remain under development. One of the political consequences of such a system is noticeable differences in levels of rebellious political conflict among the developed core countries and underdevelopment periphery countries.In the present research attempts have been made to formulate the hypotheses for explanation of political conflict within the theoretical framework of dependency/world-system theories. Then, the said theoretical model was evaluated through collecting data from 95 periphery countries for a 20- year period (1980-1999).Overall, the findings of this cross-national study could not provide empirically support for the dependency/world-system theoretical perspective. In other words, all hypotheses extracted from the dependency/ world-system theoretical tradition to explain rebellious political conflict were rejected by this empirical test.

The theory of social capital is re-emphasis on the role of community and society-based groups in sustainable development. In this paper we try to survey the role of artistic and cultural clubs at universities in reinforcement of social capital among students. We also study the effects of social capital on increasing civil norms and decreasing deviant behavior. Putnam's approach to social capital is theoretical framework of this study. According to this theory, relations network, social trust and social co-operation are the most important indicators of social capital. Research method is based on survey by using questionnaire technique. Although, the results show that social capital of Tehran University’s Student (as control group) and artistic and cultural activists of universities of city of Tehran is not higher than average level, but later group have more social capital than formers. Also, the results represent that whatever the level of social capital increase, civil behavior increase and deviant behavior decrease.