Value-relevance of the social sciences field; thematic analysis of a case study of doctoral dissertations

In this study, an attempt was made to find a value-relevance relationship of the Iranian social sciences field and to formulate the concerns that effect researchers in this field. The main question was what the social sciences in Iran is thinking about and the question of which field is considered to be the main issue that can be pursued at the social level. In this regard, doctoral dissertations in this field during 2009-19 as one of the final products of this field were analyzed. The work began with a review of 437 dissertations by using "thematic analysis" method and by dividing them according to different fields of sociology, changes in the hegemony of areas were observed during these ten years. In some areas where there were a large number of dissertations at the beginning of the study period, including Sociology of Culture and Political Sociology, fewer dissertations were seen in recent years. While other popular fields, such as "Development Sociology" and "Economic Sociology", have continued to grow rapidly until the end of this period. In addition, areas in which fewer dissertations have been written throughout this period, including Sociology of Environment and Sociology of Education, have attracted significant interest from researchers in recent years. As a result of the second type of codification, a kind of "Economic-turn" is observed in the titles of dissertations during these ten years; this means that the economic issues of the society are becoming more and more important, and in the same way, addressing the issues of democracy, freedom and civil society has been marginalized.