Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract People in the society suffer more from mental feeling or perceived inequality than from real inequality. To explain the issue, in this research, we sought to investigate the social factors affecting the feeling of social inequalities and we tried to answer this question: what are the social factors affecting the feeling of social inequality in Isfahan city? In terms of controlling the research conditions, this research is a mixed method (survey and grounded theory). The statistical population of the current study is all citizens aged 18 and older living in Isfahan city. According to Cochran's formula, the sample size was 400 people, which was selected by random sampling according to the size. The data was collected with a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 28 items for independent variables and 18 items for the feeling of social inequality (dependent variable). Ensuring the validity of the questionnaire questions was done through the face validity method to ensure the quality of the instrument, the researcher used two criteria, checked its reliability and validity. Retest reliability was used to check the reliability, and the 99% reliability obtained indicated a very high reliability of the tool. To check the reliability, content validity was used (according to the Sen H Laushe formula - CVR coefficient) and the CVR coefficient was equal to 68%. To analyze the data, statistical methods of one-way analysis of variance and independent t-test were used. Based on the obtained results, there is a significant difference between the feeling of social inequality and the variables of social opportunities, geographical area and media programs. However, there is no significant difference between the feeling of social inequality and the variables of ethnicity, religion, social bases and education levels.  

Abstract This study investigates the construction of a memory of the Movement of Gilan among the participant's descendants in the movement. The underlying theories are presentism, social cadres of memory, and findings of Schuman, Schwartz, Arcy, Larson, and Lizardo. The research population is the descendants whose ancestors participated in the Jungle Movement. A sample of 26 people was selected and interviewed. Then the interviews were analyzed by thematic content analysis. Findings indicated the ethnicization of memory and otherization in narrating the event among Gilak ethnicity. Gilaks had united and ethnic narration but on the contrary,Talyshis had pluralistic and non-ethnic narration. The narration of the Jungle Movement was different according to the education levels of the correspondents. It means that people with higher education at a “national-international”  level had a comprehensive and historical approach and people with a basic education at the “ethnic-indigenous” level had a religious approach in narrating the event. The former emphasized intellectual and modernist essence and the latter emphasized the religious essence of the event. They remembered the event in the framework of resistant collective memory and formal collective memory policy respectively.

Abstract The present study addresses the stereotyped attitudes and perceptions of the Kurdish ethnic groups (Huram, Soran, and Kalhor) and their consequences using grounded theory. The statistical population consisted of men and women of Kurdish ethnic groups, living in Kermanshah city and a sample of 28 people were selected from the three dialects by the use of purposeful sampling. The content of the interviews was coded and analyzed in three stages. In the open coding, 115 codes were obtained. Next, the codes were reduced to eight axial codes in the second step. The results showed that the perception and description of the groups were influenced by ethnicity and the superiority of one's own group. Moreover, the intensity of the stereotypes and the ethnic distance between the two groups of Huram and Soran with Kalhor is greater than that of Huram and Soran.
 

Abstract This paper examines the factors affecting the physical health of Turkish and Kurdish ethnicities living in Tabriz and Mahabad with an emphasis on lifestyle (behavioral dimension). The study was conducted in the form of a survey and 500 people were selected using a multi-stage cluster sampling method. The theoretical framework of the research is based on Dressler's models and other related theories. The research findings showed that socioeconomic status, the sum of cultural, social and economic capitals as well as lifestyle have a positive and significant effect on physical health. In other words, when these variables increase, the levels of physical health among ethnic groups increase too. Also, the physical health of the members of the Turkish ethnic group is greater than that of the Kurdish people. Moreover, the lifestyle-related health of Turks is also better than Kurdish.
 
 

Abstract : In view of concerns arising from cultural and ethnic diversities in the Iranian society and their consequences, this paper, which is the result of a national research project, will discuss the relationship between national and ethnic identities among Iranian ethnic groups. According to an analytical framework based on symbolic interaction, especially the viewpoints of Mead and Blumer, the main assumption of this paper is that Iranians enjoy a multifaceted identity and there is no incompatibility among identity sources. That is, collective cultural identity of the Iranian society comes from a number of sources and due to its gradual, historical and continued nature; there is no incompatibility among those sources. Survey method and questionnaire has been used to test that assumption. The unit of study is "individual" while the unit of analysis includes 6 ethnic varieties of Iran as Kurds, Baluches, Turks, Arabs, Turkmens, and Lor people. The population was over 18 years of age and included residents of 9 big cities inhabited by those ethnic groups. Samples were chosen through multiphasic sampling method. The results show that both ethnic and national identities are simultaneously prominent among Iranian ethnic groups and there is no conflict between them. Also, there is a positive and powerful relationship among cultural and social aspects of ethnic identity, on the one hand, and cultural (and to some extent social) aspects of national identity. Of course, there is a negative relationship between their political aspect.

Abstract It is commonly believed that nationalism has an ethnic root and ethnicity is the most important element influencing nationalistic tendencies. In the present study, with the aim of examining the relationship between nationalism and ethnicity, the nationalistic tendencies of a group of Iranian students (Baloch, Turk, Fars, Arab, Kurd, and Lor) have been surveyed. The findings of this research revealed that Iranian students have a greater tendency toward, respectively, civic nationalism, archaic nationalism, religious nationalism and state nationalism. Of these, religious nationalism and state nationalism showed a higher correlation and were not distinct. Thus, we are faced with the triple form of civic, archaic and religious nationalism. Therefore, unlike what is commonly supposed, there is no single nationalistic tendency. Also, of the nationalistic tendencies examined here, civic nationalism is much stronger among Iranian students of different ethnicities as compared with other kinds of nationalism. Another finding of the present research suggested that variables such as religion, socio-economic status, gender, and place of residence have no explanatory effect on nationalistic tendencies. Thus it can be claimed that nationalistic tendencies have a meta-religious (Shia/Sunni), meta-gender (female/male) and meta-spatial (urban/rural) nature. However, the explanatory effect and significance of ethnicity, which is the main variable of this research, can be examined and analyzed. Of all nationalistic tendencies, it is the civic nationalism only that is not influenced by ethnicity, has a meta-ethnic nature and covers social and cultural diversity. However, both archaic and religious tendencies represent a difference in the relationship with ethnicity. As a result, ethnic convergence is very high in the tendency toward civic nationalism, followed by archaic nationalism and religious nationalism. Also, nationalistic convergence between civic nationalism and archaism is greater compared with other combinations. Considering the association between ethnicity and nationalistic tendencies, the emergence of ethnic challenges at the time of the dominance of nationalistic ideologies (religious, archaic and civic) over the state can be examined, and this association can be used to speculate the distance (gap) between the state and the nation.