فصلنامه راهبرد فرهنگ
پیاپی 5 (بهار 1388)

Within the area of human sciences, perhaps one of the most important problems in Iran is the incompatibility of these sciences with the cultural milieu and concrete needs of a society which is deeply religious. At the same time, that Islam has a practical plan for the material life of human beings; human sciences claim to be offering a similar plan. If within the area of human sciences, by ‘religious science’ we mean a perspective, which strives to expand ideas that are the products of interaction between teachings of modern sciences and those of Islam, then one can present that the most important need of human sciences is ‘the production of religious science’. This paper takes as its presumption the necessity of some kind of interaction between the achievements of modern sciences and doctrines inherent in religious texts. The paper does not attempt to enter a discussion on the existing disagreements pertaining the meaning of ‘religious science’, but it aims to offer common strategies for policy makers who focus on scientific community. In the long run, such common strategies are intended to bring about the required conditions for realization of religious science and to convert the situation of human sciences from one of ‘threat’ to an opportunity’. The suggested policies intend to reexamine curricula of modern science and the Islamic teachings, so that to provide an interaction between the two. These policies also include our educational concerns about what the process of acquisition of science should entail. In addition, the suggested policies seek to modify macro structures pertaining to science nationwide, from universities to the seminaries, and from elementary & secondary education to certain cultural institutions.

Conducting any research on a complex phenomenon as that of organizational culture requires a strong and solid conceptual framework. Various thinkers, pending their specialization, area of interest, and personal experiences, have individually proposed different typologies for understanding and measuring of organizational culture. Which one of these typologies can best help us in understanding and in controlling the manner by which organizational culture undergoes change? By conducting a careful examination on different kinds of typologies concerning organizational culture, this paper attempts to present a set of meaningful criteria for the evaluation of those typologies. By utilizing these criteria the paper then goes on to evaluate the examined typologies. The identified criteria are as the following: simplicity and understandability, capacity to be applicable to various research methods, flexibility in understanding cultural changes, advantage of a conceptual and theoretical framework, applicability to various organizations and identification of dominant themes. This paper provides researchers of organizational culture with a rather comprehensive framework in order to be able to utilize a more suitable typology for understanding, measurement, and drawing a profile for organizational culture in both existing and desired situations.

This paper explores the relationships between different styles of spouse selection (SSS) and quality and stability of marriage among the Iranian couples. Two separate but related studies about this issue are reported here. The first study investigates the relationships between different ‘SSS’ and marital adjustment of women in Tehran. A total of 334 married women were selected through accessible proportional sampling technique. They completed a one-item questionnaire about their ‘SSS’, as well as the Marital Adjustment Test. Results revealed that those who reported their ‘SSS’ as ‘Previous familiarity and acquaintance with family's consents (PFA)’, and ‘Proposing and marriage meeting both with one's and family's approval (PMA)’ were also reported significantly higher marital adjustment than those whose ‘SSS’ were ‘Proposing without one's own will (PWW)’ and ‘Previous familiarity and marriage due to subsequent obligation (PFO)’. From a cross-sectional developmental view, it was revealed that despite fluctuation in marital adjustment scores observed in these groups, they sustain their status compare to each other during years after their marriage. However, those who reported their ‘SSS’ as ‘Infatuation and subsequent marriage without family's approval (IMA)” although reported a high rate of marital adjustment during their first years of marriage, but as time passed, they show a continuously lower marital adjustment. In the second study ‘SSS’ were compared in three groups of couples: ‘Divorcing couples’, ‘couples who were seeking couple therapy/consultation’ (SCTC), and ‘living together couples’ (LTC). From Tehran, Mashhad, Sabzewar and Esfaraien cities, 310 couples were selected on a accessible proportional sampling and completed the revised one-item questionnaire about their ‘SSS’. Significant differences between groups were revealed: While 89% of ‘LTC’ reported their ‘SSS’ as either ‘PFA’ or ‘PMA’, 48% of divorcing couples reported their ‘SSS’ as either ‘PWW’ or ‘IMA’, and 43% of ‘SCTC’ reported their ‘SSS’ as either ‘PFO’ or ‘Marriage to escape from family's domestic setting’.

This paper seeks to examine conceptual domain, main components, and performance levels of cultural security and to reach an appropriate delineation for this concept. Thus, we proceed by reviewing culturally oriented definitions and approaches of security, and then turn to examining the interaction between two areas of culture and security. In the next section, several points are discussed. First, we have tried to present a definition for cultural security, a definition that we hope to be worthy of note. Second, we study the governments’ motivations for paying attention to national cultural security. Thirdly, we attempt to reflect on the threats to cultural security at the national level, and then we examine the environment and different levels of cultural security. The final point to consider in this section is that we present and assess the model for provision of cultural security. The final section of the paper deals with the concept of cultural security in a framework that focuses on human security. Then upon offering components for human cultural security, we pay attention to its interaction with the concept of national cultural security. In the end, the Islamic approach to human security and human cultural security is discussed briefly. This discussion takes place within the confines of two major source books on Islamic narration; Osoul-e Kaafi; and Vasael al-Shia.

Most organizations are unable to share knowledge and intellectual capital effectively, thus they sustain much loss which can be prevented through knowledge sharing. Effective knowledge sharing requires the appropriate cultural setting. Research shows that organizational culture is one of the most important factors in helping or otherwise retarding knowledge management and knowledge sharing.Therefore, this research focuses on the relationship between organizational culture and activities related to knowledge sharing among faculty members of Jihad-e Daneshgahi (Academic Defense). The method is of combined correlation studies type, and data gathering technique is the questionnaire. The sample consists of 280 of faculty members who have been selected through proportional stratified sampling method. Results show that an organizational culture which promotes participatory, flexible (innovative) and missionary-devotee elements has a positive relationship with knowledge sharing among the faculties. Yet no significant relationship was found between a stability-based culture and knowledge sharing process. The results also show that the relationship between organizational culture and knowledge sharing can be moderated by the way in which knowledge is shared.

The tendency toward superstition is a feeling of belonging and commitmentto illusory issues that has no scientific, religious or rational justification. Sociological study of superstition is necessitated not only for contradictions it bears vis-à-vis development processes, but also for multiplicity of negative consequences it invokes. Utilizing a sociological approach, this article sets out to investigate students’ tendency toward superstition in the University of Mazandaran and the Nowshirvani Technical University in the city of Babol. Out of the total number of 14548 of the student population of these two universities, (during the academic year of 2008-2009), 375 students were chosen to be the sample volume of this survey research. Such sampling was conducted based on Morgan Table and using the proportional stratified sampling technique. The data was collected by a constructed questionnaire and analyzed through the SPSS statistical software. The most significant findings of the survey can be summed up as the following1. Reliability coefficient of the superstition scale is high (α > 0.80).2. Less than a quarter of the students were found to be superstitious (about %23).3. There was a significant difference between rates of students’ tendency toward superstition based on their gender and educational rank, but not on their educational discipline and their university.4. Applying regression analysis revealed that about 18 percent of the changes of the dependent variable (the rate of the students’ tendency toward superstition) can be explained by three independent variables: rate of religiosity, gender, and education level.5. And, more importantly, compared to the other two variables of gender and education, the rate of religiosity (the third variable) has been the most important variable influencing students’ tendency toward superstition.