نشریه مطالعات جامعه شناختی
پیاپی 39 (پاییز و زمستان 1390)

Social mobility is defined as the displacement of individuals and groups between social classes or different occupation status. In this study, the impact of cultural factors, especially the work ethic and cultural capital on social mobility within a generation and between generations was investigated. Our finding indicates that 32.7 % of men of 35 to 64 years old in Tehran, have experienced upward mobility, 60 % have stayed the same and 5.8% of respondents have experienced downward mobility.
In addition, 49.83% of respondents had Inter-generation upward mobility. Downward Inter-generation mobility includes 22.1%, of respondents and 28% of them did not mention any mobility between two generations. Adjusted R Square in inter-generational mobility Regression is more than 69% and in Intra-generation model is over 15% and both of them are statistically significant. Among the variables of the research conceptual model: 1 - family economic capital ,2- family cultural capital ,3- Respondent's cultural capital and 4 - work ethics, first work ethics and then cultural capital had more direct effect in path analysis of social mobility.

The present paper aims at investigating the impacts of Internet usage on student's social identity. Students are the biggest virtual space users. Presence in virtual space, whether for professional purposes or for amusement and either continuously or irregularly for special functions of virtual space, leaves deep impact on different dimensions of student's social identity. Theoretically, the article is based on an integrated conceptual framework by which main questions and hypotheses are developed. Drawing on a survey of 400 professional and recreational internet users, the results show that the exposure to virtual space reduces the ethnic identity and promotes the formation and strength of national and cosmopolitan identities, particularly regarding professional users. Yet, the strengthening impact of uses of Internet on students, concerns cosmopolitan identity. Also, the correlation between the various aspects of social identity and the level of consumption is to some extent different from the type of consumption. Thus, the virtual space can be considered as an opportunity for reflectivity of identity boundaries, reduction of the particularity and promotion of universalism.

Post Doctorate Researcher, The Institution of Humanities and Cultural Studies Iranian nationalism, dates back two century in history, is an inevitable concomitant of Iranian modernity. The emergence of Iranian nationalism in the nineteenth century is the inevitable consequence of the encounter of traditional Iran with modernity which was manifested in an elitist and at the same time an elementary way, in the form of modern thoughts and policies, among Iranian statesmen and intellectuals. Iranian nationalism, in reaction towards the expansionist policies of the invading foreign powers, also took an anti-colonial form. Also, in the face of the despotic states of the time, it took an anti-despotic aspect. Iranian nationalists of the Nineteenth Century focused their efforts on maintaining the independence of Iran; though the protection of Iranian identity and integrity was also among their goals. However, gradually, Iranian nationalism in response to the various changes of Iranian society developed a multi-dimensional nature. Facing the modern political changes, it developed a civil dimension and regarding the cultural qualities and properties of the country the religious and archaic dimensions of it also emerged. Till the end of the nineteenth century, the most important accomplishment of Iranian nationalists was preparing the grounds for the rule of law, which was in turn a prelude for the establishment of people’s right to rule. This ultimately crystallized in the Iranian constitutional revolution. From this period onwards the grounds for different forms of nation-building has been established in contemporary Iran, and so has the grounds for the gradual process of transition from a culturally-oriented nation to a politically-oriented nation

In this paper we have tried to study the characteristics of ethnic – community culture of some parts of Azerbaijan in Iran with an emphasis on three elements of ethnic tourism, media, and food and their roles in development. We have taken a socio- anthropological approach. Our main argument is that ethnic marketing, as a means of strengthening cultural identity and economic development is an important issue to study. Azerbaijan region in Iran shares long borders with neighboring countries and ethnic people in the region are eager to preserve their ethnic and national cultures. In this paper our goal is to introduce the local elements in ethnic marketing and promote economic development and to identify goods at the local, national and global levels.

Dada Qorqud stories are like a mirror that reflect the characteristics and behaviors of Turk tribes in the far past. These stories are part of the cultural- historical branch of Turk tribe (Oghoz tribes).An attempt to study social aspects and discovering the normative concepts of these stories can help us to analyze its different aspects from sociological view. Because of this, in this research we try to explore the effects of political structure, role of leaders in social management, quality of laws and their references, their functions and also the role of religious beliefs in stability of social organization.

Rituals are the main context of producing the religious experience. In Iranian society, mourning rituals of Muharram are the central collective rituals. These rituals have important functions to organize social groups and identities of Shias. Assemblies and processions that formed on the base of these rituals are the main process of religious socialization.
There is an especial kind of social groups on the base of Muharram rituals, that is called “Hey`at” or Hey`at Azadari. In this paper the author will try to provid an anthropological analysis of components and structure of Hey`at and its functions in reproducing the organization of Shia religious communities.
Widespread impacts of Hey`at in Iranian society lead us to use the term “Hey`ati community or Hey`ati society”. On the base of Victor Turner`s theory on Liminal situation and Communities, Hey`at as a community, formed within liminal situation during religious rituals, has most aspects and functions of communists. In the last decade because of mass communication and developing of media and virtual spaces, a special kind of Hey`at has been emerged that we can call it “virtual Hey`at”. Finally due to importance of Hey`at in Iranian Shia communities, Hey`at is a social and cultural key to understand and analysis of the traditional communities in Iran.

The purpose of this study is to study how blogging practices influences positive self- presentation, expands social networks and enhances social participation of disabled people. Furthermore, the paper explores how these uses have credited the social inclusion of bloggers with disability in their everyday life, esp. in their interpersonal relationships. Applying Latour’s 1986 Translation of Innovations approach, an analytic approach to focus further on the users’ interpretation of technologies, we studied the individual experiences of both the disabled and the disability activists to extract the patterns of their blog use in their everyday life. A snowball sampling was used in this study to gather needed information. In-depth interviews were aslo conducted with 15 bloggers. Findings revealed that bloggers found weblog as a tool to connect to the disabled people, from one hand and, to connect to the larger society, i.e. people without disability, or those who have no immediate contact with people with disability from the other hand. Regarding the former use, weblog was mainly considered as a societal medium to provide the disabled society with items such as disability news, medical and health care information, individual experiences on how to manage one’s disability in everyday life, and consultation on different areas. As for the latter use, bloggers first saw weblog as a tool to present a new narrative of bodies with disability, different from the dominant normal vs. Pathologic discourse, to expose the Disability Identity. According to the bloggers under study, people with disability are isolated and marginalized in society as a whole.

Roland Barthes applies mythology as a means to decode different aspects of everyday life and popular culture. Besides his sophisticated analysis of these aspects, the method that enables him to demythologize even the most trivial aspects of everyday life is important and should be taken into consideration. The Barthian method was applied later by others and influenced cultural studies greatly. The present article examines the method applied by Barthes in his mythology. It does so by applying Lacanian and Zizekian viewpoints. Barthes ends his article Mythology today, which has explained in his method and insight in details, with a paradox that mythology cant solve. According to Barth, Mythology is unable to present its totality and oscillate between object and its decoding. This paradox which Barthes cant solve causes an inconsistent understanding of reality in mythology. It seems that the solution to this paradox is unconscious, the concept Barthes omits in his analysis intentionally. The mediation of unconscious as the discourse of the other can transcend the limitations of the duality of poetry (natural quality of things) and ideology (mysterious quality of things) and supports ideology critique with an extra-ideological point which enables the critic to reject the natural and unmediated characteristic of experience as ideological.