فصلنامه راهبرد فرهنگ
پیاپی 22 (تابستان 1392)

Video Games are known as one of the most effective and popular media in current age. This article is an attempt to study the influence of videogames on the religious identification of gamers by studying The Sims 3 game. Important features such as cultural and religious contexts of players and their participation in making narratives in the game are effective in their reception of influence. Stuart Hall’s Base Model of Encoding/Decoding with the help of other components from James Gee have been used to make this model more applicable to video Games. Research methodology used for this research included in-depth interview with gamers of “The Sims 3” and studying their interaction with this game. The results of the study indicate that although in minor cases we have seen some resistance against the ideology of the game, players don’t have the power of resistance against game’s main hegemony, i.e. consumerism and hence are classified in dominant position in Hall’s grouping.

New spiritualist sects, whose activities have come to the fore during the past five decades, have created an atmosphere for their followers that are not dissimilar with the sacred atmosphere of the traditional religions. The present paper is a case study of one issue of the journal of Yoga Knowledge, to analyze through comparative study the sanctification structure existing in it. The main question of the present paper is: what are the differences between this kind of sanctification structure and that of the traditional religions? Relying on the Rudolf Otto's analysis of “the holy” and through analysis of the contents of the said journal, it is discernible that there is a kind of sanctification structure, i.e. the new sanctification structure which is similar to the traditional sanctification structure with four elements: concrete, inexpressible and unique Nominus, sense of aura while encountering it, and fascination and mystery. However, at the same time the said elements in new sanctification have clear distinctions with traditional sanctification. These distinctions mainly underline the humanistic nature of new sanctifications (at least in some new religious movements).

The present paper is an attempt through qualitative method to study the interpretation of the inhabitants of border region of Marivan of changes in family system incurring due to border commerce. The data were collected through in-depth interview, participative observation, and documents. The results were analyzed by employment of the Grounded Theory. The sample was selected through theoretical and purposeful sampling method and 28 key informed persons were selected to achieve theoretical saturation. The collected data were analyzed after being codified in 38 fundamental concepts, five main categories and one core category. The five main categories are: destructive and disharmonic growth of the economy of the region, disintegration of family relations, transformation of faithfulness values, decline of the symbolic and institutional dominance of parents, and fallibility of family structures. The core category, which includes the general categories, is fragile world life. Attempts have been made to offer a critical explanation of constructed situation of the family institution.

Concurrent with the emergence of postmodernism in the West, distinguished thinkers such as Seyyed Ahmad Fardid, considering the West as a symbol of sensuality and carnal desires, introduced a new system of thinking in Iran. Sharing Heidegger’s thoughts, Fardid tries to liberate the world from the clutches of Western metaphysics and its accompanying subjectivism. It should be noted that what Fardid borrows from Heidegger is the negating aspect, while for the creative aspects of his criticism of the West, he relies on Ansi’s philosophy and Ibn Arabi’s mysticism. The main point that should be mentioned about the difference between the thought of Heidegger and Fardid is that although Heidegger tries to fundamentally criticize the Western metaphysics, he was raised in the context of the Western metaphysical thought. This paper focuses on the issue that Ahmad Fardid, by deconstructing and using elements of Heidegger’s thought such as disagreement with subjectivism and Western metaphysics on the one hand and using Islamic and mystical fundaments on the other, tries to offer a new classification whose focal point is criticism of the West as an integrated whole. Despite insightful points in Fardid’s thought, his thought is subject to certain criticisms. Fardid is basically opposed to any philosophy and logical, demonstrative thought. At the same time, the holy Quran frequently lays emphasis on the significance of argumentation and reasoning. There are also some doubts about Fardid’s philosophy of history. Fardid maintains that the origin of yesterday's history can be traced back to Greek of Plato's time. The question that is raised is whether the entire mankind was a united nation of the day before yesterday before that period and all were monotheists without social classes and free from sensuality. The other points is that Fardid's interpretation of West-toxication and its consequent universality, definitions and interpretations are merely some contentions that he does not provide any proof to prove them which is an outstanding weakness in his scheme of thought.

Human capital is the most valuable asset of every country in today's competitive environment of the world. Therefore, identification, recruitment, utilization, development, growth and replacement of this capital is the most important decision and specialization of policymakers in this environment. The existing difference in resources, advantages, market, culture and valuesof various countries have made competition and preparation of suitable management model in this environment very complicated. The present research is an attempt todelimit the thematic fields and problems that the experts of this area face through meta-analysis of published national studies and reports. A combination of theoretical approaches, strategic competition models and futuristic approaches can help clarify the pivots of focus of talent management. The results of this meta-analysis indicate that talent management becomes very complicated when it is to be handled in global context. Every country faces its own specific challenges. There is not any standard plan for talent management. Nevertheless, there are certain principles for management of talents whose observance is binding in all environments. Proper understanding of cultural differences, legal issues and regulations in different societies, identification of trends of human resources and their dispersion in the global network of talents and brains management, adjustment of the official and public education systems of the countries with the strategies of this field are amongthe most important issues of this field. Adjustment of talent management with the national values and business strategy, culture, economy and politics of every country are the keys to effectiveness and success of these measures.

The present paper is an attempt to offer a futuristic cultural policymaking model through reviewing the well-known public policymaking models by synergizing them and studying their weak and strong points in the culturalfield. In fact, by using models, one can determine the process of policymaking and method of their application in making policies. In Iran, the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution is in charge of regulation and formulation of cultural policies. In the present study, relying on field reseatch and exploratory study, the models and processes of policymaking of the said Council have been studied and a policymaking model in this field has been proposed. Hence, this study is descriptive and inductive and also attempts have been made to design a model for policymaking. With regard to its theoretical issues, librarymethod has been used; for analysis of policies and the model of research, the techniques of policy analysis and content analysis has been employed. Macro policies of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution in the field of culture have been analyzed and on the basis of operational definitions and indexes taken from the existing models, the trend of preparation and formulation of related policies have been studied to identify the used model.

In the light of growing relations between different cultures and languages as well as the significant role of communication media in today’s world, the understanding of other cultures is felt more than ever before. This need becomes outstanding at the time of learning foreign languages. Learning a foreign language is often accompanied with the importation of specific cultural issues of that language to the domain of the learner. Three decades after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the officials in charge of teaching English language still face the challenge of encountering the differences between the imported culture depicted in the textbooks of foreign languages and those inherent in Islamic-Iranian culture. The present article is an attempt to study the cultural values depicted in Conversation English books taught in some language institutes. One set of books (Impact, Conversation series) was selected and attempts have been made to study the cultural values portrayed in these books through qualitative content analysis. Hence, these values were extracted, classified and statistically analyzed. The results of the study indicate that the books contained many cultural values, the most predominant of which are gender segregation, girl-boy relations, fashion, and apparent beauty. The results also demonstrate that in addition to language knowledge, these English books transfer cultural values of the English native speakers to the learners. Consequently, the imported English books are one of the means of imposing cultural values on language learners.