BARG-E FARHANG
Year:2010 | Volume:NEW | Issue:21|Papers Count:19

It is not so long time of proposing the concept of cultural capital, just a matter of some decades. This concept indicates the relationship between economy and culture and in fact marketization of cultural domain.The concept has played a determining role in researches of the cultural field done in different countries in the last few decades and it has recently been welcomed in domestic researches as well. In effect, the concept of cultural capital has remarkably influenced the sociology as a whole, because it has put culture in focal attention of the researches concerning social class. Therefore, concerning the importance of the concept, this article examines its theoretical bases, and by looking at its historical development, it reviews the ideas of key theorists of cultural capital, say, Bourdieu, Throsby, Erickson, and DiMaggio.

By emerging Information Revolution and development of network world in which we are living today, though there are disagreements about the forms and consequences of this revolution and basically the characteristics of network world among the scholars, there is at least consensus in just a single case. And that, like other previous great technological revolutions in human history (e.g. Neolithic and Industrial revolutions) is the great and numerous changes in structures, concepts and social relations. We believe that the systems related to public culture and the concept of academia are changing and we will be confronted them in completely new forms. This trend has started now and probably will accelerate in next few years, and the less resist obstacles of the pre-Information revolution world, including political, managerial and social barriers, which are based on the previous structures, and the more they weaken, the sooner new structures will be replaced.Looking back into the experiences of the previous revolutions, we can find that this recent revolution is faster than the previous ones, though the changes are gradual, in spite of the fact that the Information Revolution took place not too long after the Industrial Revolution comparing to the old ones, and its effect became evident much sooner.Our aim, in this article, is to sketch the public culture, concentrating on education in the academic system in forthcoming years.However, although an important part of these changes have already begun, they have not found a large spread. The article argues that the general structures of information society intend to increasingly raise cultural capital but, at the same time, there are two problems that should be considered. First, the tensions and dangers resulting from this increase of cultural capital will grow because of reinforcing the potentials, and the potential for harsh and uncontrollable violence will increase in real and virtual communities. Second, this forces the academic field to build more concentration in a limited elite level which is, in turn, manifested in the academic level, but in the opposite pole. This may cause some kind of polarization and intense eliticism in the society which is accompanied by increasing contradiction in cultural and economic capitals, creating and reinforcing some authoritative orientations and destroying or severely decreasing democratic achievements.

Nowadays globalization has covered every aspect of social life. Local cultures are increasingly being integrated as a whole. If we understand the higher education as a part of culture, then academia is one of the most visible sites of globalization in at least three ways: first, there are large flows of information, ideas, people, and knowledge, and growing numbers of networks between people and universities; second, university is the home of numerous global cosmopolitan elites who are effective in cultural advancement and third, university is the birthplace of many new technologies. Therefore, universal accessibility to higher education institutions and extra-mobility of university elites will cause cultural, economic, social, and political transformations all-around the world. This article briefly concentrates on the relationship between culture, globalization and higher education. It establishes three separate sections. First, the conceptual framework of culture; second, phenomenon of cultural globalization and third, globalization of higher education through focusing on "Fears and Hopes" from the standpoints of several scholars, will be discussed.

This article concerns the relationship between globalization and education. Globalization refers to the formation of global systems. It has, in its essence, the internationalization of many affairs; however it is different from internationalization at least in a single characteristic that it supposes the nations and societies as necessary unit. Globalization includes various and different aspects which have coextensive and, at the same time, contradictory consequences. Basically, The effects of globalization on the different social, political, economic and cultural domains, including education, have been discussed from two perspectives: a) from an ideological one which is based on neo-liberalism and it poses liberalization of education as the necessary precondition for the effectiveness and high quality of educational services; and b) from a pragmatistic perspective which is based on the existing facts and interests, and explains the change in education based on the existing gaps which is the failure that governments are faced with in supplying the financial resources for education on the one hand , and inflexibility of the traditional educational system in responding to the changing needs as a necessity, on the other. Considering these aspects, this article discusses the effects of globalization on education in such fields as decentralization, technology, development of multi-skills, migration and exchange of brains and labor forces, educational goals, educational liberalization, international work division in the field of knowledge. It argues that while governments are still working in their national frameworks, education and its reforms are the central issue in the agenda of the governments, particularly where it is related to the identity and distinction in educational policies.

Emergence of virtual and absent learning environments has supplied new possibilities and horizons for world citizens to access information and acquire knowledge. This new-born environment has, of course, been supported by technological changes of electronic revolution in the last decades of the 20th centuries. The revolution that is even quickly growing and flourishing in the 21th century. However, the depth and dimensions of the revolution not only is beyond its technical and superficial level but represents the deep and wide paradigmatic changes in teaching and learning. The trend of developments in information-networked society has advanced in an unpredictable speed. Now it’s argued that the progressive and advanced economy of the world cannot survive without information flow and process with computer and network. The point is that the emergence of the Internet is not just an ordinary technical development but it has a cultural nature. Distant learning in new-born virtual spaces accompany communicative culture and new thinking.The aim of this article understands the cultural aspects of the new-born environments of thinking and teaching-learning process as well as acquiring knowledge. It is descriptive-analytical. We used the library method to support the theoretical basis and the survey method to explore a sample from the universities in Tehran.

Culture is an inseparable part of people’s lives in any society. By culture, it is meant a universal, and at the same time, particular system its tenors are established in the consciousness of every individual of that society.This system is the origin of practices, behaviors and insights of the members of the given society in every field and even influences the most ordinary moments of their life. Therefore, many social behaviors are usual in its members’ view points, but as soon as they have relationship or are faced with people of other societies, these usual facts cause misunderstanding and some other problems.On the other hand, today "globalization" has a cultural aspect and in addition to economic and political relations, it seems necessary to have relation with "cultural discourse" in different fields. This cultural discourse has even become intra-social. Here the societies are meant which have become multicultural due to the changes happened in the late 20th century. You can find many examples among European countries, including Germany and Austria.It is obvious that language as the most important medium of mass communication has vital role in this universal system and is said to be a mirror whereof any word can reflect and represent a nation’s culture.While introducing the well-known theories of language and culture, this article stresses paying attention to the cultural differences in teaching foreign languages, and offers some solutions to overcome the difficulties in language teaching from a cultural view.

At present, there are lots of social and economic inequalities throughout the world. They are expanded by unstable patterns of production and consuming, unprecedented growth of population, prevailing and continuous poverty, and existence of numerous powers in cultural and political spaces. Gender inequality is one of these patterns established in the heart of all these factors and like any other inequality patterns (say, ethnic, racial, class, etc.) has proved influential in policies and services.There is no doubt that gender discrimination is one of the discriminatory behaviors which is, at the same time, influenced by historical issues, dominant social norms and relations, collective beliefs and historical and cultural thinking. Social policy, which is based on cultural beliefs of any given society, includes or excludes the individual from some social relations due to sexual identity.Gender analysis in social policy, which is the core of educational and other policies in the society, is the subject matter of this article.Postmodern insights refer to development of devices that make use of social policy as well as educational policy in relation with analysis of gender problems, and through this they clarify predetermined behaviors and thoughts explaining the relations and backgrounds of them in the society.Educational policy as a part of social policy is faced with biased gender stereotypes. The solution to this problem is consistency among those involved in social and educational policies.This article tries to profoundly look at this issue, draw out the theories and examine Iranian educational policy with regard to gender and culture.

One of the great concerns of parents throughout the world is how children use the Internet. The Internet can be useful and damaging at the same time. The possibility for children to use pornographic websites and to surf the sites dealing with child abuses is the main concern of the parents. Parental control which is, in relation to managing children’s Internet use, one of the most controversial debates in the field of education and culture, has many proponents and opponents. So, this article overviews the issue of parental control and reviews the controlling devices and training mechanisms to solve the problem.Though direct control of children through software technologies can help parents be aware of the sites they surf in the short term, it is damaging in long term so that children lose their confidence in their parents, or the processes of feeling free and having confidence in others will suffer from contradictions.According to this study and based on reviewing the theories of culture, education, hegemony and democracy, we can say that the concept of control in training the children should be revised by society on the one hand and family on the other, with a new approach.

The Great Islamic Civilization is a name for the academic, social and cultural developments in a wide geographical field spreading from Kashgar to the beaches of the Atlantic. In this wide range, there have been some small civilizations which all together constitute the Islamic Civilization.  These civilizations are mainly local and subject to particular geographies and incidentally have certain time frame. The civilization field located between Maragheh, Tabriz and Baghdad in the Ilkhanate era (late 7th to early 8th centuries-Islamic Calendar) is one of the important and distinguished fields of Islamic Civilization. Two great figures, Khajeh Nasir and Rashidoddin Fazlollah ore among the founding fathers of this civilization. This article explores the civilizational viewpoints of Khajeh Rashidoddin Fazlollah, whose philosophical, social and political thoughts have a particular place in the Islamic-Iranian thinking.

The institution of identity which is divided from the institution of religion in the modern era in order to prepare some proper answers to the old question “who am I?”, now has been faced with some critical challenges in the post-modern era. The identity, as one of the most important elements in cultural policies, has transferred its challenges to those policies. Some of the most Significant challenges in our society are the challenge between sacred and profane identities, the challenge of personal identities, and the challenge between unique, constant, authentic, plural, fluid, and inauthentic identities.

Most of the leisure theories were created in twentieth century, and many of them were responses to the problems caused by Industrial Revolution. So far hundreds of definitions have been presented about leisure. It has an important role in our lives and like any other institution, has social functions. Enriching the quality of life, developing various individual aspects and preventing from antisocial and delinquency uses of free time are among the most important functions of this institution. The philosophy of leisure education is to teach leisure science and its functions. By means of leisure education it would be possible to help individuals to gain profit from leisure situations. Leisure education also helps us use our time and our capabilities in a joyful way. It means to rest in time, participate in recreation, contemplation and work in proper time, and to understand and explore our inner selves. Leisure situations, recreation and playing are passages of leading the citizens toward perfection and developing a healthy society.