فصلنامه علوم اجتماعی
سال بیست و هفتم شماره 4 (پیاپی 91، زمستان 1399)

Arbaeen walk in its current form is a novel ritual and diverse social phenomenon. The diversity comes from the multiplicity of pilgrims’ narratives and the variety of meanings people attach to it. The feminine narrative of Arbaeen walk, despite all its diverse meanings, is neglected and marginalized by the formal, masculine meta-narrative. The present research aims at comprehending women’s foot pilgrimage experience through the thematic analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 25 women aged between 22-68 made in the camps (moukeb) of the pilgrimage route. The findings show that as part of the feminine subjectivity, the female pilgrim constructs herself as a fragmented identity in form of five major themes: fatigue of everyday life and ridding of modern life monotony; gratification of self-imposed, sanctified pain; memory of war and the fluid meaning of body; historical feminine subjectivity averting everyday life objectivity; and spiritual illumination in moving from egoistic, habitual behavior to altruism. The female pilgrim re-presents herself as an active subject by assimilating her experience of Arbaeen walk to the Ashoura agony and its aftermath incidents, thereby deconstructing and re-constructing herself through critical reflexivity on gendered stereotypes constructed in the formal discourse of Iranian society.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the most important factors in the occurrence and epidemic of emerging infectious diseases such as Covid-19 and their relationship with modernization and globalization based on the concepts presented in the sociological perspective of risky society Irish Beck and the demographic view of health transition. The research method is descriptive-analytical and based on existing documents. According to the findings, the most important reasons for occurrence of emerging infectious diseases is environmental change (climate change and global warming and deforestation), which is related to human interventions in nature. Urbanization, high density in cities, air pollution, the increase in migration and the growth of spatial mobility are also among the most important factors in the spread of diseases such as Covid-19. All these causes and factors are related to modernization, globalization and its risks. On the other hand, social, economic, health and geographical inequalities also play an important role in the continued presence of the Covid-19 epidemic within and between countries, especially in middle-income countries such as Iran. These inequalities have become more pronounced, especially after the discovery of the vaccine. Therefore, occurrence, global prevalence and differences between countries in this field can be explained with the risky society and the health transition approaches.

The purpose of this study was to review and criticize the theory of Iranian modernity, Ali Mirsepasi, as one of the most important analyses that has been done on the Iranian in face of modernity which has tried to present multiple models of modernity as a new theory. The current study has used the analytical-critical method, while analyzing the main features of the theory of Iranian modernity, evaluating and criticizing its critical and positive aspects in the study of contemporary Iranian developments. Shortcomings of his analysis include paying great attention to the intellectual and cultural aspects of Iranian modernity while not paying attention to the structural and institutional aspects of it which effects the development of modernity. Moreover role of intellectuals in promoting political Islam and traditional forces and institutions in the Islamic Revolution have not been addressed. One of the most important findings of the current research is shedding light on positive aspects of his proposed model, which is based on the diversity of cultural and historical experiences of modernity and the attempt to draw a non-European-oriented image of it. The general result of this research indicates that the theory of Iranian modernity, while presenting a new approach and perspective to the study of contemporary Iranian history, postpones some of its crucial aspects emphasizing the need for new research.

This study aims at examining strategies of political participation of four varied groups, namely teachers, students, women, and laborers. Drawing on theories of formal/informal political actions, the paper has interrogated the political strategies actors employ to realize their claims within the broader political scene. This includes theories of democratization and authoritarian resilience. In order to gather data, the study uses qualitative methods and semi-structured interview. In this light, 22 political activists from different groups were interviewed. Following this, thematic content analysis came along to assess the findings. Accordingly, four different strategies have been recognized, that is rapprochement or negotiating with state, resisting against state, renewal and reconstructing the organization after repression, and finally making coalition with other groups. However, these strategies should not be considered as completely separated way of acting in the political scene. Quite contrary, actors more often employ the combination of these varied strategies. Furthermore, it seems that political organizations have a kind of sequence beginning with contacting and negotiating with statesman. Next step would be more informal way of action (legal or illegal) which is not without consequences. These consequences make political activists more cautious and lead them toward informal and underground activities including establishing non-registered groups and individual or collective sporadic activities.

The purpose of this research was to study the situation of Iranian women in the Qajar era (1789-1925). The present research has been done by historical method. The findings of this study showed that women in the Qajar era had very few social rights. Women were the second sex. They were second-class citizens. Domestic violence against women was common. Marriage of women in the Qajar period was forced marriage. They had no freedom in marriage. Girls had to get married as children (10 to 12 years old). Women had to have children quickly. They had to have many children (at least 7 to 8 children). Their children also had to get married between the ages of 10 and 12. Women became grandmothers in their 30s. The aging process was very fast. Life expectancy in women was very low. During the Qajar period, polygamy was common. Patriarchy prevailed in the family and society. Women were completely dominated by men. In the Qajar period, women were considered inferior to men. Therefore, they had to obey men.

The theory of rational choice of economics in the analysis of economic action faces two basic problems. The problem of validity, that is, the empirical confirmation of its basic principles, and the problem of subjectivity, that is, the ability and capacity to pay simultaneous attention to the social and mental factors of the actor. Different sociological traditions have tried to express different perspectives on the analysis of economic action. But these sociological approaches have explained at an analytical level different from the theory of rational choice of economic action, so they have not been a suitable alternative. The main question of the research is whether economic sociology can provide an analysis that in analyzing economic behavior simultaneously pays attention to social factors and active mentality, calculation and routines? The theoretical framework of this research is the relational approach and the way of interaction, action and situation structure, calculating mentality and routines. The research method is documentary and based on critical interpretation and review of the main sociological texts in order to analyze the theoretical approach of the sociological tradition to the theory of rational choice and the possibility of a suitable alternative to it. The two concepts of practical reasons and routines in Bourdieu and Schutz theories in two different theoretical traditions can provide a suitable sociological explanation for economic action. Schutz's theory is a good alternative for explaining economic action because of the simultaneous analysis of calculation and routines.

Analyzing the relationships between different scientific fields makes research possible, especially those fields where questions can only be answered by an interdisciplinary analysis. The connection between social knowledge and other scientific fields has long been developed and enabled answering the questions in various fields. Proper use of social science knowledge in explaining religious texts with various linguistic structures is of importance. In this research, a descriptive-analytical method was adopted to analyze the relationship between social science knowledge and linguistic approaches to indirectly enable the analysis of religious texts. Studies show that the relationship between social knowledge and other scientific fields has not been established all at once, but has gone through at least three stages. In the third stage, in the early twentieth century, social science was affected by linguistics. The emergence of new linguistic approaches created a novel approach to analysis of social texts. With the methodological revolution in linguistics, structuralist and post-structuralist approaches emerged in the social sciences that emphasized the importance of language in social relations. In this study, considering the third stage, namely the relationship between social science knowledge and linguistics, the bilateral effect of these two fields is shown. Based on this basic research, it is possible to conduct a discourse analysis of the texts in Quran and Hadith, law, literature, and various fields which have a close link with linguistics.