A Conceptual and Theoretical Study of Social Engineering

Theoretical approaches to and practical strategies for concepts such as cultural engineering or social engineering have developed in the Western civilization and have been explained within the framework of social thoughts of Western thinkers. Therefore, they are among new concepts in Iranian academic society. The present paper is a comparative study to determine the conceptual status and theoretical approaches to them in Iran and the world. Hence, the theoretical approaches to cultural engineering and social engineering can be classified into positive, negative and neutral in the world and consequently in Iran. This will facilitate the identification of their intellectual foundations, methods of argument, ideological approach and their theorization base. In the next step, it will become possible to discuss the whatness, whyness and possibility or impossibility of social engineering and cultural engineering. Some suggestions have been given at the end of the article.