فصلنامه جامعه پژوهی فرهنگی
سال پنجم شماره 3 (پاییز 1393)

There are controversies among experts over the exsistence of «Generation gap». Nevertheless، in societies like Iran، that are experiencing great social transformations in structure and values، lack of proper management of the conflicts resulted from these changes in different sectors of the society would potentially set the ground for the occurrence of «generation gap» and in the extreme case «dissociation between generations» and an identity crisis originated from this issue. The present paper aims to analyze the experimental data to identify the status of the generation gap in the current Iranian society using the secondary analysis of the data gathered from the fifth wave of the World Values ​​survey with a sample size of 2667 people and a library-based method for theoretical analysis of this phenomenon. Results indicate that the tendency of adolescents and young adults towards modern values and the sense of identity crisis—as a result of their detachment from previous generations—has gradually been increasing. In case of inappropriate management of the processes of adolescents’ acculturation and young adults’ cultural reproduction by the government and the media، the generation conflict and ultimately generation dissociation would jeopardize future development of the community.

With the mounting increase of the media consumption being experienced، the way the new media is being used has become an indicator to stratify individuals in the metropolises. The present study، conducted in the metropolis of Isfahan by a survey method answers this question: What media consumption is responsible for such stratification? The population of the study consisted of a total of 1908968 people، all citizens of Isfahan Metropolis. 959 persons from this population were chosen as the sample of this study and multi-staged cluster sampling was conducted. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire made by the researcher whose reliability was estimated by Cronbach''s alpha coefficient (0. 85). The data was analyzed by two-stage cluster analysis based on information criterion (AIC) and chi-square test. The most important results showed that two clusters of media consumption are separable from each other. In the first cluster، change of cell phones، cell phones’ performance and new features، non-verbal communication and network programs، virtual network activities and intensive use of the Internet gained high scores. The second cluster including verbal use of cell phones and the electronic performance of daily activities approached the average.

The purpose of this research is to explore some of the indicators of a women-friendly city، applying the opinions of women of different socio-economic statuses and social types. This research is descriptive and qualitative in nature. We use the ethnography as our method and our technique for data collection is problem-oriented interview. The statistical population is a group of women aged between18 and 50 who have lived in Tehran during the last 5 years. The non-probabilistic and judgmental sampling is employed and the sample consists of 19 women. The results of this research indicate that، according to the interviewees، 8 features can make Tehran a women-friendly city: Safe Tehran، convenient Tehran، active Tehran، participatory Tehran، leisurely Tehran، fair Tehran، beautiful Tehran and child-friendly Tehran. Furthermore، we find that social type and socio-economic status do not make a significant difference to women’s comments about a city women-friendliness. Rather، it is the three types of status، i. e. housekeeping، employment، and motherhood which differentiate women’s views، needs، and concerns considering the issue of urban life.

Today، with the turn of the social analysis from producing activity to the consumption activity، the foundation of social differences has been changed by the concept of life style. Paying attention to the style of cultural commodity consumption in our country can efficiently illustrate the differences and the similarities of various social strata. The accelerating growth of urbanity in Iran in recent decades، emersion and development of new media and the expansion of transportation networks، have transformed the interactions of cities and villages. In this regard، in the present study، we focus on the condition of the cultural activity and the consumption of the cultural commodities in cities، metropolises، and villages in accordance with the statistical data of one of the national plans. The findings of this research show that there is a significant difference regarding the consumption level of all examined cultural goods، in cities، villages and metropolises. In addition، the regression analysis of the research model of the consumption level of cultural commodities displays that the relative share of the residence variable to predict the changes of consumption level is much less in comparison to the economic capital and specially the cultural capital.

Identification of dominant cultural values in life styles gains more importance when we understand how values can shape individual’s mental space، tastes، and preferences and affect their practical choices in what is called life-style. Accordingly، the main purpose of this study is to shed light on dominant cultural values in the city of Tehran. The pivotal problem is to measure the ratio between the ideal and current real values among the respondents. The method of the study is quantitative. The data was collected by both interviewing 30 people selected from a heterogeneous group of people from Tehran to explore the concepts and responding to a questionnaire made by the researcher which was distributed among 300 respondents who differed in age، gender، academic education، income، and residency in 1391. Descriptive and inferential clustering statistics are employed in this study. Findings display a gap between current real and ideal values for determination of the valuable person. In case of the former، we face the saliency of “pretentious” values such as emulation، ostentation، and hypocrisy and the triviality of values of considering others such as empathy and gratefulness. This occurs in spite of the fact that the valuable person، in the view of respondents، has been identified as a wise and educated person. In addition، there is no significant difference between the before mentioned dominant values and the independent variables of this study including، gender، age، academic education، residency، income، and employment which consequently reveals the fact that we experience a kind of homogeneity in our value findings.

Introduction of modern kitchen in Iran and its popularization from the 1950s brought new concept of “kitchen as heart of home” into the everyday life of Iranian women. In this article، through qualitative questionnaire and comparative analysis of responses، various aspects of cultural meaning of kitchen in the contemporary life in comparison with previous style have been studied. The focus of the study was on the religious families in the city of Qom. It was found that three ranges of meanings should be considered to explain socio-cultural concepts of kitchen in Iranian Muslim women’s life: from personal space of special privacy (for females) to a living family space، from a utility space to a place of genuine life and from a sacred place to a profane one that has clear implications in the lives of Iranian Muslim women. As a result، it can be said that now the ideal picture of a kitchen in the examined cultural context is a female personal space and، at the same time، it is a temporary private family space which definitely does not have the quality of a collective living space.