Iranian Journal of Sociology
Year:2009 | Volume:10 | Issue:2|Papers Count:7

Based on Habermas theory of knowledge and human interests, the authors analyse the articles of Iranian journal of sociology from 1381 to 1384/volumms. The findings show that among 86 article: 59 article have adopted Naturwissenschaftenapproach, 25 article have Geisteswissenschaften and the rest of 2 have emancipatory approach. Although positivism is dominant on sociology of Iran, but there is a disturbance in theory and methodology and relationship between them. While the main aim of positivism is social engineering, Iranian positivism does not attention to it. In the Geisteswissenschaften, there is a great inconsistency in the of articles structures, for example, the presence of universal concept and rules together with the specific ones. Although the aim of this discipline is understanding social phenomena regarding to the cultural differences, but Iranian sociology has a little attention to it. Ultimately, wherase there are some epistemological problems in Iranian sociology, there is not different interest in it except personal interest.

This paper is an attempt to evaluate the progress of "nation-state" formation in Iran. Contrary to the scholars argue that the process of "nation-state" building in Iran has not progressed during the last century, this paper illustrates how contemporary Iran's souety has successfully cultivated most of the key features and elements of modern nation-states. This paper, also will focus on the main weaknesses of nation-state in Iran which are generally to do with the failure to develop a modern democracy. After a review of the theoretical literature on the features of modern-nation states, it will argued that the increasing institutional differentiation and division of labor, growth of middle class, growth of service and industry sectors as opposed to agriculture sector, improved civil awareness, increasing involvement of women in public sphere, expansion of communications and media, rise of NGOs, and dominance of democratic discourse which are all among the features of contemporary Iranian society and politics, have set a suitable stage for the compensate of the democratic weaknesses of nation-state in Iran.

Tendency towards New Religious Movements (NRMs) amongst the young university students in Iran, in spite of sovereignty of religious government, is a new phenomenon which deserves an exact study. The present study seeks to describe the tendency rate towards NRMs among university students, as well as to explore some social correlates of it. Survey method is used for conducting the study. By means of multi-stage sampling procedure, 400 students of all state universities located in the Tehran city have been selected randomly, to fill up the self-administered questionnaire which consists to some scales regarding tendency towards NMRs, religiosity, and ethnic identity. The results of the study show that 9.4 percent of university students reported high tendency towards NRMs, as compared with 41.7 percent of them who had declared low tendency. The analyses of data indicate that the highest tendency towards NMRs has reported by those students who were unmarried, were studying in the faculties of Fine Arts and Humanities.belonged to Lor, Turk, and Kurd ethnic groups, engaged in a part-time job, and their parents were originated from higher social class. Furthermore, a non-significant gender difference i! l tendency towards NMRs is found, namely; female as compared with male students, had reported higher tendency towards NMRs. Finally, results of correlation coefficients showed that there were significant, reverse correlations between tendency towards NMRs with the degree of religiosity as well as tendency of students towards ethnic identity.These findings emphasize on more attention to NRMs and its dimensions in Iran, particularly by scholars, researchers, and policy makers.

This research has studied altruism in social relationship and effective causes on it in Yasouj and has attempted to determine the rate of altruism among citizens and to investigate relationships between the altruism to empathy, social responsibility, cost-benefit analysis and demographic variables.Research method is cross-sectional survey, statistical population includs all of individuals aged 15 through 65, in which 386 subjects were selected by means of random multi-stage sampling. Measurment tool is a questionnaire, that construct validity through factor analysis has been used for determination of the validity and the reliability was measured by means of Cronbach alpha coefficient. Research findings in relation to initial purpose, show that the rate of altruism is significantly more than the actual mean of altruism. The findings also indicate that there is no significant relationship between empathy and altruism, but social responsibility and cost-reward analysis have significant effect on altruism. Analysis of relationship among variables in regard with dimensions of every variables shows, there is complex interactions between independent variables to altruism.

Participation, membership and co-operation in the NGO's and in collective activities is influenced by several factors. This research is about the impact of social trust on the organized participation of people. For this purpose, different theories in the field of social participation and social trust were studied, and theoretical problem of the research hypothesis, extracted from the theoretical view points of social trust and social participation were tested by the data gathered through survey method. Geographical area of the research is metropolis of Tehran and statistical research population are inhabitants of Tehran municipality regions: one (up), seven (middle), and seventeen (low) regarding to SES. Sample size is about 300, which are selected randomly by cluster sampling method. The required information gathered by questionnaire, tool. The results indicates that there are significant relationship between the three different forms of social trust (including individual, generalized and institutional trust) and organized social participation; although the coefficient of multi variables regression indicates that generalized social trust and social-economic status, among all of the studied variables, are the best predicators for social participation.

This paper tries to criticize the linear (evolutionary) reading of Durkheim's theory- which ignored all different histories in favor of dominant history-either at evolutionary material determination level or at the level of its approach to consciousness. For this reason by constructing the concept of gravity of mechanical solidarity proposes a dialectical relationship between various kinds of solidarity in different historical periods. This is primarily based on Giddens's discontinuous interpretation of modern history and avoiding transitional period approach. Then in empirical level, by operationalzing the above concepts and applying quantitative methods in Tehran, the relationship between gravity of mechanical solidarity and abnormal forms has been examined. In so doing, the effect of particular concepts inscribed in abnormal forms on gravity of mechanical solidarity has been revealed. And several phenomena which previous readings were unable to explain or consider them as exceptional cases, has been conceptualized.