Surveying Effective Factors on 'Sense of Unity' among Elites in the Cultural Field (Case Study of Seminary Schools and Universities)

This article surveys the effective factors involved in 'sense of unity' among cultural elites in Iran, being a case study on the university professors and seminary Alims. The main questions in this survey are as follows: (1) Today, two decades after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, how strong is the sense of unity among university professors and seminary Alims?; and (2) What factors can boost, or weaken the sense of unity among these two groups? In order to find answers to the questions, an experimental research through giving a questionnaire was conducted. A number of professors teaching at faculties of humanities at Tehran City's state universities and a number of Alims teaching at Qom seminaries answered the questionnaire and each group's answers were compared with the others’. Regarding the first question stated above, it was found that the sense of unity among university professors and religious seminary Alims was at a medium level. In reply to the second question, the important factors involved in boosting the sense of unity were under the influence of such variables as cultural (political) consensus, role consensus, prestige consensus, epistemological consensus, and communication action. All of these variables in various ways had positive effects in boosting the feeling of solidarity among university professors and religious seminary Alims.