مجله مطالعات اجتماعی ایران
سال پنجم شماره 3 (پیاپی 15، پاییز 1390)

The present article attempts to analyze the discourse presented by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, one of the candidates of the tenth presidential election campaign, by using the method of critical discourse analysis. The methodtheory used for extraction of discourse signifiers is Fairclough theorymethod. Then, the signifiers and nodal point are put in the theoretical framework of research means of Laclau & Mouffe's theory-method which represents the total view that would help us to understand the way signifiers articulate together, the way of defining and redefining the signifiers by nodal point, the way of integration around prominent signifier and also to produce antagonistic borders for hegemonic victory to other discourses that exist in the field. The prominent signifier that integrated this discourse and articulated other signifiers around it was popular management.

This research aims to study and utilization of the new communication theories in the field of psychology and media psychology. Therefore, it can open a door through a new subject on cyberspace and cyber-psychology in an interdisciplinary perspective. In this regard, upon completion of the theoretical studies, an investigation was conducted to explore the relation between blog usage and attitude towards blog virtual relationships. So, 310 undergraduate students of University of Tehran based on spending time on blogs were divided into three major groups, each one includes two subgroups based on gender. All groups were asked to complete one questionnaire: Attitude towards Blog Virtual Relationships. The results show significant Pearson correlation between attitude and the time spent on blogs.Furthermore, it assessed the value of participants’ reliance to virtual relationships and its relation with blog usage through Rely Index. The results showed no significant Pearson correlation in this matter.

Value and structural transformations influenced by cultural turn, having taken place and grown in contemporary societies, have given a boom to memory studies. Cultural memory has turned into an important tool in producing discourses and representations and also in shaping the cultural identities of social groups and kind of communication people make with many of social institutions and structures. The connection between memory and popular culture and the role of cultural industries in the production, reproduction or the changes in cultural memories, also explain the strategic role memory plays in culture politics. The present paper aims to clarify the background, functions and the impacts of memory studies’ prevalence as an academic tradition, particularly within the area of cultural studies. In addition to providing important new agendas in the study of everyday life and popular culture, memory studies has important contributions in connecting humanities and social sciences and in offering a better understanding of the complexities that social and cultural processes display.

Considering the theoretical and experimental background reached abroad to the effect that an opposite relationship often exists between development and violent crimes, this same question was raised here as to whether a similar pattern exists in Iran? Therefore this study assumed that higher the level of the socio-economic development in Iran’s provinces the lower their rates of violent crime. The theories of structural pressures and violence sub-culture were used to explain the research problem. This is a statistical-method research which uses the secondary and formal data. The analysis is conducted at a macro-level and units of analysis are country’s provinces (28 provinces). The study covers the period of 1997 to 2001. The Pearson correlation, the Spearman correlation, and multiple regression analysis were used for testing the hypotheses. Findings of research indicate that there is a positive and relatively weak relationship between the socio-economic development, in its dimensions, and violent crime rates among the provinces, but when each of the components of violent crimes index (homicide, assault, collective disputes) were brought in relation to socio- economic development and its dimensions, it was observed that only murder (that involved 2.2 percent of all violent crimes index) had an opposite relationship with socio- economic development and its dimensions.

The lamenting ritual of Ashoora in Ardabil should not be thought as a simple religious phenomenon; instead, it represents a highly lived and active sociocultural occurrence. The aim of this paper is to describe and understand the lamenting ritual of Ashoora in Ardabil as a cultural heritage as it bears sociocultural functions in the society that was studied. Using ethnographic fieldwork method, we have tried to present a close, precise and thick description of the Ashoora ritual based on Clifford Geertz and Emile Durkheim perspectives. The research findings categorized in two ways: the first is the order and quality of the lamenting ritual; the second deals with the symbols and signs of Ashoora. This paper demonstrates that the lamenting ritual of Ashoora constitutes a collective identity and unity in which individuality serves in favor of collective consciousness. The symbols and signs used by participants in the ritual are drawn from the cultural systems which in turn distinguish their identity and belongings.

Values are among the most substantial factors orienting human behaviors in any society and they play a major role in the economic, social and political development. Value priorities which differ from one society to another reflect different experiences of various people. The present study, using the cultural shift theory of Inglehart, seeks to determine the value priorities of teachers and the economic, social and cultural factors affecting it. The data of the research were collected via 343 teachers who are employees of the education office of Boroujen. They were selected by multistage random sampling and through survey-method and the questionnaire. The results of the findings of the research showed that the teachers possess materialistic value priorities and there was no significant difference in value priorities of different age groups. The extent of religiosity among respondents was measured to be very high. Out of independent variables of the research, "feeling of social security", gender, and income had significant relationship with value priorities.