social constructionism

This research aims to study the role of non-governmental organizations in environmental construction issues, with a focus on the biogenic sedimentation project in Anzali Lagoon from a social perspective. With the beginning of the experimental stages of the biogeme project, the anti-biogeme movement was launched in Giulan province, with the city of Anzali being a focal point where NGOs were one of the main contenders of this movement. Assertion as part of the social constructionist approach is highlighted in the way environmental problems, as well as the means and methods of addressing them, are constructed and contested. This type of understanding of environmental problems does not mean defining them without considering their objective dimensions. Rather, it means that attention must be paid to social, cultural, political, and historical processes related to the emergence of such problems.

The research is qualitative in nature and is conducted based on the content analysis of texts obtained from interviews, observations, and documents. The participants are 26 founders and board of directors of environmental NGOs in Giulan province, and the required information was collected through in-depth interviews as well as documents and field observation.

Based on the study of the activities of NGOs in the field of environment, especially resistance against the implementation of biogeme, six overarching themes, including scientific, rhetorical, educational-promotional, media, organizational communication, and practical tactics in political conflict, were extracted from the data obtained in the course of the study which indicates the way NGOs perform in the environmental construction issues.

Through a process that includes the performance of organizations in the aforementioned themes, the issue of biogeme is taken into consideration in the public arena, and a decision is made based on the demands and claims of NGOs to solve it. With this description, the result of the NGO activism in the field of biogeme projects accompanied an order to stop their implementation.

Social collapse is one of the ideas related to the problem of social solidarity in Iran, which has entered the analytical space of Iran society since the late 90s by some claimants and has been favored again with the intensification of tensions and contradictions in recent years. In this article, based on the approach of social constructionism, the claims made regarding social collapse have been analyzed and critically evaluated. To achieve this goal, the text is arranged in three parts; In the first part, with an overview of the literature of social collapse in the wider global sphere, the distinctions of its application in the domestic literature are emphasized. In the second part, the different social and political contexts of the formation of the concept of social collapse within the broader approach of thinking about decadence and how it is found in the analysis of Iran society are in the focus of discussion. Finally, through a critical review of claims related to the idea of social collapse, the way to construct the said idea is discussed. The results of this study showed that the idea of social collapse lacks precise theoretical and conceptual implications and has been formulated in the public space of Iran society in the form of "problem claim" with the aim of sensitizing the political system to review macro policies and governance. However, the predominance of "pathological approach to society" along with "accusing the political institution of creating the problem" has prevented the mentioned idea from entering social policy. The article clarifies that the idea of ​​social collapse, in addition to not having many conceptual and political achievements and is sterile and stuttering in terms of presenting a solution, through the expansion of "exaggerated and dramatic" literature, in addition to giving priority to "analysis and practice based on The political" It is practically organized against The social and society.

This study is aimed to achieve the foundations of social constructionism by using analytical method. Using analytical method, dissection of the social constructionism’s foundations will be the main aim of this study. To achieve social constructionism’s foundations, after preparing a definition, its differences with constructivism, its types, features, and roots were examined. The results showed that despite being realistic with regards to ontology, as soon as talking about the reality, social constructivism changes to a constructed phenomenon, which adopts a critical and pluralistic stand. Knowledge, in this perspective, is the product of social interactions. Furthermore, constructionism, regarding ethics and values, treats with respect to the values of other cultures and believes in toleration. Thus, social constructionism is based on a relative and pluralistic ontology, epistemology, and axiology. Viewing from an anthropological point of view, social constructionists, are also known as anti-essentialism and anti-individualism and the human is considered as a social animal. Finally, they assign both individual and society as the origin of effect.

Non-governmental organizations (NGO) are considered an inseparable part of today's world. Supporting NGOs as one of most important kind of NGOs that spread in Iran try to improve vulnerable groups situation. Main question of research is "what are the main social problems constructed by NGOs and with which technics do they constrauct the Social Problems?"

Main method of research is grounded theory. In this qualitative method technics for data gatheringare are observation and semi-structured profound interview; 23 interview with NGOs members and observation of 34 social problems oriented NGOs in Tehran province.

According to research findings, "child labor", "exploitation and abuse of children" and "marginalization", are the most important social problems in NGOs. Also "street children", "children living in impoverished areas" and "children deprived of education" are the main vulnerable groups who NGOs focused on them and seek to solve their problems. also some technics for social problems construction are "Tangible damage", "solving of micro dimensions of problems", "solving of critical dimensions of problems", "priority of new dimensions of problems", "Linguistic, Dramatic and Behavioral clame making", "Linking problems to personal and everyday life", "Wave attention to the issue" and "Emotional proximity to vulnerable populations".

NGOs try to show some social problems to society and addressing them as general, harmful and solvable issues. This act infact is construction and Highlighting social problems by NGOs. Non-governmental organizations as active social groups can interven in social problems and what they consider to, is a reflection of most important social problems and issues of society.

The present paper is an attempt to study marital commitment from the viewpoint of women through a constructionist approach and based on their interpretation depict a comprehensive picture of the reasons and factors causing the commitment as well as changes in the commitment in the couple’s relationship. The construct of marital commitment has been studied through an interpretive approach based on grounded theoretical method. The sample for this study consisted of 38 women with marriage experience who were selected through targeted and theoretical method. After confidence building, the necessary data were collected through semi-structured in-depth interview and analyzed through three-stage open, axial and selective coding.
The findings of the research indicate that childhood and adolescence life experiences, paradox of individual values, personality traits, joint life experience, consumption/leisure lifestyle, prescribed marital norms, need to experience love and women’s modern achievements, as causal conditions, construct commitment into a volatile issue. In such contexts as epistemological contradictions, hegemony of the discourse of sexual satisfaction in the couple’s relations, relative welfare of society and under the circumstances of media intervention and intercultural relations, the volatility of the issue of marital commitment leads to two types of women’s interactions: A group of women, through positive assessment of their marriage and by using appropriate education and consolidation of life skills, have caused commitment-based sustainable marriage to turn into a normal situation. In contrast, another group, through negative assessment of their marriage and clandestine separation from their husband, have faced negative consequences such as breach of commitment, promotion of multiple emotional and sexual relations, divorce and lack of mental health.
Awareness and proper approach to the consequences can reduce the degree of problems stemming from cognitive changes of marital commitment to the minimum level.

This article has tried to understand the circumstances، consequences and interactions of drug use and addiction in the Rudbar-e Jonubi County in Kerman province in Iran، from the perspective of the native people. It was performed from the perspective of social constructionism and applied qualitative research method and grounded theory. Participant observation and in-depth interview technique were used for collecting the data. Based on purposive sampling method and theoretical sampling with the theoretical saturation criteria، eighteen local Informants، so-called gatekeepers of the community، participated in the study. The results of the grounded theory include eight major categories: customs and local traditions، positive evaluation of the drugs، negative assessment by overcoming a positive assessment، the problems of economic system، low level of awareness، accessibility، lack of facilities for leisure time، lack of effective security control، and ecological contexts. The core concept that cover these categories is called «contextual normality». The resulted underlying theory، is presented in a paradigmatic model that includes six dimensions: causal conditions، underlying conditions، meddler conditions، phenomenon، interaction and outcomes.

Although having similar English equivalents، social constructionism and epistemological constructivism are different schools of thought; the first one is an effective theory in epistemology، and the other one is a sociological theory about cognition. The first part of the article introduces the main concepts of each school of thought and their formulation، and then the roles of dominant thoughts for each of them، the analysis of other subject topics such as educational theories، social discrimination، the concept of refugee and even the philosophy of science and the importance of the book “the Reality of Constructionism” are discussed. At the end، these theories are examined from different points of views and the weak points and strong points of each of them are discussed.

This paper aims to examine the socially and culturally constructed nature or the issue of Mehriyeh among women grappling with the issue in Shiraz, Iran. More specifically, the study aims at the understandings, reasons and purposes of women to ask over their Mehriyeh, while they have it in mind getting divorced. This study, epistemologically, enjoys a social constructionist perspective for approaching the issue and, methodologically, draws on a qualitative approach for gathering/making and analyzing data. J,1 order of gathering data, twenty-six in-depth interviews were done with wives who had difficulties for receiving their Mehriyeh. Interviews were witnessed many difficulties in terms of feasibility. For instance, all interviews were done in a public place in Shiraz in two months. The findings of the research are evidence for heterogeneity of the issue of Mehriyeh in terms of roots, forms. and consequences. The interviewed women thought of Mehriyeh as a tool to defend their rights and autonomy and recover their styles of life. Moreover, handling the issues of Mehriyeh entails review and re-formulation of the laws to be improved the condition of marriage and divorce, women said.