فصلنامه برنامه ریزی رفاه و توسعه اجتماعی
پیاپی 25 (زمستان 1394)

The present study seeks to measure social health and its different aspects among the youths living in the city of Malaayer, and investigate its relationship with hapiness among the paticipants. It employs a mixed approach in social health and hapiness as its theoretical framework, drawn from the characteristics of social health in Keyes, Larson and Durkheim views, the approaches of Veenhoven, Argile, Dyner, and the theory of hedonism. It is a developmental research using correlational and analytical methods. The population of the study is comprised of four hundred 18-30-year-old youths living in Malaayer, selected based on random cluster sampling. According to the findings of the study, the extent of social health among the youth is evaluated as medium and upwards (40.44). The level of hapiness is also calculated as medium (44.26). The findings also indicate a correlation of moderate degree (24.0) between the variables of social hapiness and social health.

Iran is a developing country and social entrepreneurship can speed up its progress. If the social entrepreneurship is established among public employees, it can be an effective and sustainable solution to various problems. Accordingly, the purpose of this research was to study the condition of social entrepreneurship among Organization for Nomadic Peoples Affairs staff of Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad. The study is an applicable study with regard to its objective and is a descriptive study in terms of data collection. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire based on Dees’ theory. Face validity of questionnaire was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was determined using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (0.84). The results showed that the social entrepreneurship range
of this organization’s staffs between 4.33 and 8.54. To study social entrepreneurship in the target population, three groups were developed: Group One, with low social entrepreneurship, Group Two, with moderate social entrepreneurship and Group Three, with high social entrepreneurship. Kruskal-Wallis test showed that the three groups were significantly different at the 0.01 level in terms of five variables of social entrepreneurship (mission adopt, perseverance, innovation, acting boldly and accountability). Also, appropriate management practice was the most important factor affecting the traits from the viewpoint of respondents.

This study aims to identify the relationship between social capital (trust, norms and social networks) and organizational entrepreneurship development. In this study the components of Nahapiet and Ghoshal’s social capital theory and Antonich & Hisrich’s theory about organizational entrepreneurship were used. The research method was descriptive correlation and a combination of documentary and field methods. In the field analysis, 372 employees working in Iran Khodro Industrial Group in 2014 participated by filling out a researcher made-questionnaire of social capital (Nehapiet & Ghoshal, 2002) and a researcher-made questionnaire for the seven dimensions of organizational entrepreneurship (Antonich & Hisrich, 2003). Participants were selected and studied using the quota sampling method. Data analysis was done at two levels of descriptive (mean) and expressive (Pearson correlation coefficient, Mean test and binary linear regression). The results showed a direct relationship between social capital and its five dimensions and the rate of organizational entrepreneurship. The
results of linear regression test indicated a linear relationship between the two variables of social capital and the rate of organizational entrepreneurship while social capital had the potential of predicting 21 percent of changes in organizational entrepreneurship. Overall, the results showed that organizational entrepreneurship, as a syncretistic construct (technological, managerial and social), is subject to the quality and quantity of social capital and its dimensions.

Unemployment Insurance Welfare Program in Iran suffers from several problems including financial problems, lengthy procedure of receiving unemployment benefit for some groups of the insured and the slow exit of the unemployed from the situation of benefit dependency, making the evaluation of this program a necessity. The research which underlies the present paper has applied three kinds of evaluations, namely: need based evaluation, process evaluation, and impact evaluation. Using a qualitative method, in-depth interviews have been carried out with both the unemployment benefit recipients as well as the unemployment insurance staff while related administrative documents and evidence have been reviewed and analyzed. An analysis of the data reveals nine main themes which represent the most important challenges of the program, which are as follows: lengthy administrative process, lack of a comprehensive coverage of all eligible people, abuse of the program (welfare fraud), coercion and abuse by employers, imbalance between the incoming and the outgoing numbers of unemployed people (to and from the unemployment insurance fund), weak re-employment, inconsistency in administrative data and statistics, welfare dependency, and lack of coverage for all needs of the unemployed.

For many economists, an increase in happiness in society will lead to a rise in the level of productivity, and consequently economic growth and higher welfare. Thus, they seek to find factors that boost the level of happiness in society. Accordingly, in this article we decided to find the socio-economic factors affecting happiness. For this purpose, the income per capita, unemployment rate, life expectancy, mean years of schooling and religious restriction variables and GLS estimator and cross-sectional data in 61 countries in 2010 were used. The results showed a linear relationship between per capita income and happiness, so that with the increase of income, happiness increases. The unemployment rate has a negative effect and the average years of schooling, at a significantly lower level than othervariables in the model, has a positive impact on happiness. Increased
government restrictions and social hostilities, as indexes for measuring religious restrictions in communities, were associated with less happiness. A general conclusion from the analysis of socio-economic factors affecting happiness can be that richer countries, with lower unemployment rates, less religious restrictions and higher life expectancy and education, are happier.

The high risk-taking power is one of the most important features of entrepreneur which can lead to production and employment. Risk-taking in turn can be caused by several factors, which provides the requirements of accepting a higher level of risk. Social capital can be considered as a key factor that can play critical role in enhancement of risk-taking level. In this context, current study theoretically and empirically examines the effects of social capital on risk-taking of entrepreneurship students. Population was all students in Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran. The sample size of 252 was calculated using Cochran formula. Convenience sampling plan was employed to collect data. To test hypotheses, ridge regression and Pearson correlation were used. Results indicated that individual and institutional trust has a positive impact on risk-taking of students. In addition, cooperative, and charitable religious participation were found to improve risk-taking of students. However, the impacts of formal participation and public trust on risk-taking were not significant.

The problem of street kids is one of the most important social issues of today in Iran. Despite all strategies and measures taken to solve this problem, an increase in the population of this group of kids can be seen, showing that more attention should be paid to this matter. In this article we will consider street kids’ experience with welfare organizations’ interventions. This article applies the qualitative approach and utilizes interviews for a better feedback. The results of the study show that street kids have different experiences regarding the welfare interventions, mostly seeing this organization as a barrier to their peace and safety, rather than a provider of them. This study shows that there is a significant difference between the welfare organizations’ objectives and the children’s priorities; also there is a huge difference between these organizations’ function and children’s interpretations, leading to an inverse reading by children of these organizations’ functionality. This research shows that the officials of these organizations must be better educated, and more supervision is needed as well. Meanwhile priorities must be set according to children and their needs.