Iranian Journal of Sociology
Year:2010 | Volume:1 | Issue:1 (CONCEPTUAL THEORETICAL REFLESTIONS ON IRANIAN SOCIETY)|Papers Count:10

How is the Iranian ethos? We cannot describe the specific and constant Iranian ethos in an essential or reductionist way. The word 'Iranian' is an adjective that refers to a variety of different behaviors of individuals and groups living in different ages. On the other hand, the people of all cultures and societies (even in the developed countries) are exposed to many problematic behaviors such as non-transparent, false, weak team-work and so on. No doubt there are many Iranian good manners, characters and behaviors.yet, just because of the existence of such items we cannot wipe the problematic of the Iranian ethos.Through reviewing the literature on the Iranian and oriental studies, this article seeks a typology of the models through which the Iranian behavior profile is being explained. Via critical comparison of external and internal attribution models, a system thinking model has been proposed. This model is based on institutional analysis consisting of four levels:1. Institutions and Structures 2. Agency 3. Regional and Global Environments 4. Events and Occurrences.The article concludes that to achieve desired behaviors in the large scales social settings requires institutional reforms and creation of desired institutional environment. It is the institutional environment circumstances that compel many people of a society to lie, flatter, shame or be corruptible.Today the ethos of people rests on the path created yesterday and the days which came before that. Many roots of people's morale and/or moral behavior are hidden in the history of institutions, environment of their society and the historical events that have happened on them. This doesn't mean that the role of action has been ignored. We need a deep understanding of agency, beyond romantic voluntarism.

To have in mind the types that encompass general representatives of how society is realized in its diverse forms in practice is a matter essential for the sociologist as well as for others interested in studying the Iranian society, as for any other. Therefore, this paper as its main question asks under what theoretical type the Iranian society can be discussed, considering the overall characteristics of the contemporary Iranian society. So far, various general labels have been used by the Iranian and foreign theorists to capture such typical concept. this paper attempts to propose a new type/label to describe the contemporary Iranian society. It initially argues why the labels and types that are widely used to describe Iran's society such as rentier, developing, oil, or mass society, are not appropriate ones. Having criticized the existing labels, the paper proposes a new label which is ' the malformed modern society.' Employing techniques such as depth experts' interview, secondary analysis, and the library, we find an explanation as to why the Iranian society tows the adjective ' modern'; that is, it is neither a traditional nor a backward society.Upon emphasizing the modern nature of the Iranian society four categories of its internal and external malformations are highlighted. Based on the newly introduced theoretical type capabilities of the Iranian society are made visible while its disproportioned and troubled aspects do not go missing within a cloak of complex and obscure lexicon. This will also provide relevant awareness for those concerned with the reform issue (both in the area of state and outside of it).

This paper discusses the impact of the social science deficiencies on formation of a comprehensive social justice theory. The Enlightenment project introduced a new concept of society and social science based on rationalism. This project introduced a new perception of rationality independent of the historical and social background and independent of any perception of human nature or goal. Nevertheless, moral concepts are not timeless and invariant, that is, they cannot be defined and understood free from their own history or Social Context. Moral concepts that form the foundations of our understanding of a well-established and just society should be studied historically and understood vis-a-vis their cultural or social, context. Nevertheless, not only the promises of the Enlightenment project were not fulfilled, but this project is now held to have been fundamentally faulty and deficient and its promises being futile. Hence, the modern political and moral thought has been in a perplexed and confused state.social knowledge stemmed from the Enlightenment project has established the culture of sociology that after three centuries is faced with fundamental challenges. These challenges indicate structural deficiencies in dominant social knowledge that in turn constrain the capacity to form a comprehensive moral theory is an absolute necessity for a comprehensive social justice theory, a theory that is robust in relation to the relativity of time and place.Social justice theories based on the Enlightenment knowledge can be classified into two general categories; egoistic (or individualistic) and socially oriented ones. The former is based on the concept of individual as a unit of moral interests and concerns. In this perception the sanctity of individual life and respect of his or her dignity is recognized based on moral equality of human beings. In this sense, this category of social justice theory is considered individualistic. The second category of social justice theories considers individuals bound in a committed relationship through which its social nature is formed. This committed relationship produces duties the members of the relationship owe to the collectivity. These duties in turn guarantee rights that meet the members' intersts. Deficiencies of individualistic and holistic methodologies are among the other obstacles to the formation of a comprehensive social justice theory.

Social changes in the contemporary Iran have been very confused and convulsed. In Compared to the Western societies, these changes began much late, progressed very slowly and were accompanied with some interruption and returns. In the last two centuries, attempts for economic, political and cultural reforms in iran have been defeated and the processes of industrialization, democratization and institutionalizing of civic culture have encountered different obstacles. Hence accumulation of many political and social crises that sometimes resulted in numerous political movements and revolutions.This article claims that in addition to social structures and agencies, temporality of events and processes had important role in such social changes. Alternatively, social developments are generally characterized by numerous accidents, conjunctions and displacements. The main results of these factors was slowing the pace or stopping the developments, and disorienting or distributing them one which increased confusion and convulsion.

Social theories through their innovative concepts facilitate acquisition of knowledge on different social phenomena in a society. By offering explanations on causes, transformation and the endings of social facts, theories bind these processes with short and long repercussions derived from them. The processes of related, linked and tripartite developments in the domains of social tacts, philosophic theory and social theory can justify objective phenomean effectively in the sphere of thought and mentality, and controllable in the sphere of social action. But in conditions where this synchronization is disturbed, that which generally occurs in circumstances in which peripheral societies lie, it becomes difficult to understand and interpret these societies.Half a century has passed since sociology was introduced in Iran and sociologists became more and less active academically. Yet it seems that little has been achieved by sociology in that the logic of social change and its ups and downs cannot be either understood or predicted in the the theoretical framework of sociology. This article bases its considerations on pivotal subjects as follows:A- Relation of philosophical thought and social thoughtB- Characteristics of Iranian society as a peripheral societyC- Effective capacities and limitations of social thinking in IranD- An attempt to study the present challenges and obstacles of sociology and social theorization in Iran. It also tries to discuss the characteristics of social life in the Iranian society and to identify factors responsible for creation of crisis in the social thought in Iran. It strives to achieve a systematic and methodical system about facts of iranian society.

In recent years there have been formal attempts to establish an indigenous social science in contrast with universal social sciences. This paper's specific aim is to analyze the cognitive responses of the Iranian social scientists to these formal attempts. Thue the paper initially reviews the pre-revolutionary intellectual tradition of alternative social sciences and then the post-revolutionary intellectual rupture and the emergence of phobia/taboo on the discussion of indigenization will be described. The main part of the paper will attend to the alternative social sciences among Iranian social scientist. Several approaches are being developed against both one-sided universalism and indigenous trends. The advocates of "simple alternative discourses" while criticizing the official indigenization program, propose a discourse which functions as a substitute and yet defines itself in agreement with the global discourse of sociology. The "dual alternative discourses" avoid the dilemma of indigenous and universal science. They criticize the political and ideological dimensions of both discourses. The last section of the paper summarizes these various perspectives and evaluates them against the conceptual framework of our study.

Historical Sociology has provided a peculiar potential for the explanation of social phenomena and social problems by joining history and sociology together. As a kind of historical sociology, "history of the present" deals with "the present situation". This paper attends to the relationship between social knowledge and history, and by applying the theoretical model of structuration, reads the present situation, a reading which bestows a constitutive role to the ' Dialectics of Modernity' for the contemporary Iranian Society.

The Iranian society is both in transition and adrift in currents of fast changes. Then, it is rife with social problems, as the scientific sense of the term goes. Social problems can spur much research and social theory. Yet such productive stimulus can be disturbed by various factors. Social sciences in iran have understandably kept themselves from fulfilling such capacity or occupying such position. What constitute obstacles and hardships for problem-based theorization, what causes to evade reality or be engulfed in it and to be too general or to be reductionist in explaining the social facts, how can we encourage thinkers, researchers and scientific and social institutions to critically enter the arena of social problems? Addressing these questions provides the subject matter for the present paper. To describe and explain the contributing components ofa problem-based theorization, the obstacles and constraining factors of such an endeavor have been classed into ten most important of approaches and of social research cases. Such classification is provided with an historical base. Finally, five strategies are suggested for opening up the social thinking climate, one which fosters problem-oriented theory making.