Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract The paper aimed at reviewing the approach, method, and field of futures studies in social sciences. To do this, it used two different approaches: critical public sociology and methodological critique that raised issues of methodology and social science philosophy focused on the critical realism approach. Therefore, two questions arose: firstly, could futures studies as a scientific field produce valid science? Secondly, what critique does public sociology provide for futures studies? Research findings revealed that futures studies which is the systematic studies of open and macro systems, complex structures, and intentional and volunteer actors, has low efficiency.  They also demonstrate that despite the explicit claim of futures studies and its scholars for constructing a better and more egalitarian world, they have always been of service to the state and market that have created the current situation.

Abstract Ethical dishonesty in social research, though to a slight degree, can undermine the foundations of social science and weaken its investigative, critical and truth-finding role. To analyze the possible ethical dishonesties and understand the normative space of research in Iranian social science, the present study employs documentary method for collecting and analyzing the published statements of researchers in this field. The findings of the present research show that norm-violation in research ethics in Iranian social science has individual and structural dimensions. In the individual dimension, a lack of commitment to the ethics research at personal and professional levels (in relation to the form and content of research, research organization, and the violation of scientific and professional norms and rules of conducting research) is of importance. In the structural dimension, abuse of institutional and organizational ethics and professional rules and commitments in relation to the research and researcher (selecting subject, doing assignment, refereeing, confirming, and reporting) is of significance. According to the findings, ethical dishonesty in the space of research in Iranian social science is the result of the interaction between of agents (researcher) and institutional construct (including rules and norms and resources) which facilitate norm violation. The result is that dishonesty in the research ethics follows a duality of structure in the space of Iranian science and is affected by the structural characteristics of the institution of science in Iran in the period under study.