QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Year:2007 | Volume:- | Issue:36|Papers Count:5

The present article is an academic research which reviews and critically analyzes the discourse of four newspapers: "The New York Times", "The Guardian", "Le Monde" and "Die Welt" with the aim of understanding and criticizing the hidden and profound discourse and idelogy which influence the western "media function".The theoretical approach adopted by the research is the oriental ism ideology and discourse as a system of eastern representation in the west. Results inicate that "terrorism" and "Islamic fundamentalism" are the main iconographic stereotypes which are used by the western press. These two stereotype actually represent Islam and Iran as a threat to peace, democracy and modernization. Continuous degradation and reduction of Iran as a kind of dual threat under the brand of Islamic fundamentalism and international terrorism would portray this country more dangerous than other "rogue" countries for the west and other spots of the world.

The aim of this article was to investigate the question that: "Has the occurrence and related studies of the Islamic Revolution of Iran affected developments in the theories of revolutionary process'?" To answer this question, the author has utilized Thomas Kuhn and Robert Merton's theories about scientific change and development, and has hypothesized that "the studies of the Islamic Revolution have revealed anomalies in the existing theories explaining revolutinary process, causing significant developments such theories". The probe this hypothesis, revolutionary process was analyzed into five aspects of: conditions leading to revolutionary movement, the role of ideology and culture in the process, mobilization and mass participation, the role of organization and leadership, and the role of violence in the movement. Content analysis of 57 articles published in scientific journals found in JSTOR from 1980 to 2004, confirmed all five sub-hypotheses ending in the conclusion that the occurrence and studies of the Islamic Revolution of Iran has contributed to significant new developments in the theories of revolutionary process.

Considering the importance of free-trade-zones in the economy of developed countries; and some undeveloped countries, it is necessary to probe the reasons of the unsuccessfulness of Iran's free-trade-zones. To achieve this goal, in this paper, at first, we describe the priority of free-trade-zones in the planning system of Iran. Then, introducing the factors effective in the advancement of free zones and analysing the corresponding information, we discuss some problems in utilizing such zones, and the reasons of their unsuccessfulness in Iran.

This paper is an ethnographic account of Iranianmigrants celebration of Norooz (Iranian New Year) in Britain. It tries to pose a new theoretical approach to understand Norooz in the context of modern world. This theoretical approach has been explained in the first section of the paper. Other sections examine the global dimensions of Norooz and its historical context since the ancient time to contemporary period. Then, we offer an ethnographic description of the celebration of Norooz in Britain. The last two sections are dedicated to analyzing the cultural functions of Norooz in the context of modern world, globalization and migration. I have tried to explain how and to what extend Norooz has changed and developed in the context of globalization and mediazation. My general argument is that Norooz is a very flexible ritual and has been able to accommodate itself in all historical changes and contexts throughout the history. Iranian migrants in Britain and other countries celebrate Norooz to present their Iranian identity and to communicate with their children through Norooz. Also, Norooz has many economic and cultural functions for the migrants. I have in this paper demonstrated that the celeberation of Norooz has changed in Iran too.

The second war of the US-led coalition forces against Iraq, started in March 2003, is one of the significant international events in the first years of the 21st century. The triumph of America and its allies to topple Saddam's regime to establish a "democratic system" in Iraq was an indication of new approaches, policies and viewpoints in the international sphere, as well as demonstrating technological supremacy and fighting power of coalition forces. There are the quality of news released by media, especially the press about the war in Iraq and subsequent events can be considered very important.In the current study, the coverage of Iraq,s developments in the two Iranian papers-Kayhan and the Sharq- and two American magazies-Time and Newsweek- is evaluated using content analysis, within a period of two months following the transition of power to Iraqies. The main purpose of the study is to assess the presentation of Iraq,s events in the above publications with a focus on the dominant political points of view in each country.The Finding show that the image of Iraq s situation indicated in the two Iranian papers (Kayhan and Sharq) was mostly "biased", while this image in the American publications (Time and Newsweek) was "neutral".On the other hand, the accordance of the two Iranian papers with their respective government s policies towards Iraq was higher than the two American publications' accordance with the U.S. administration,s polices.