Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract The main goal of this research paper is to study the voting behavior of the youth between 18 to 29 years of age in the city of Mashhad, to describe the characteristics of their networks and to determine how these characteristics affect youths voting behavior. This study attempts to show that not only the voting behavior of network members but also the characteristics of personal networks have effects on youths voting behavior.  To achieve this end, data was collected using the survey method. Thus, 262 structured, face-to-face interviews with young people were conducted. The young were randomly chosen from different districts of the city of Mashhad. The analysis of this study was carried out using the network dataset containing information regarding the respondents and their ego-centered networks, and the tie dataset which included information about network members (1360 ties). Our final analysis is based on the aggregation of these two datasets. The findings show that functional characteristics of respondents’ networks and voting behavior of their network members are significant predictors of youths voting behavior.  In an overall view, the results approve the role and importance of network in describing and appointing the voting behavior.

Abstract The writing of this paper was undertaken to familiarize, in an abridged form, students as well as the enthused others, with the area of sociology of religion. Based on his experiences the author has come to the conclusion that the Iranian audience, either the students or members of the general public, have in mind particular questions about sociology of religion. Such particular curiosity is due to their specific religious and cultural setting in which they live. Yet, all these questions are not on the same par, in that some questions are more significant, more fundamental, and as such they invoke more controversy or dispute. The author, having an eye on simplification process, has made a humble attempt to answer some of the most important questions which are frequently asked about sociology of religion. The aim is to mitigate the conceptual ambiguities within the subject. In so doing, the author has focused on the following eight binaries: believer/sociologist; divine/humanly; generalizable/non-generalizable; reducible/irreducible; external-quantitative/internal-qualitative; exigent/contingent (or necessary/probable); universalism/particularism (or inclusive/exclusive); religious sociology/sociology of religion.

Abstract The youth defined as persons of 15 to 29 years of age, account for about 35 percent of Iran’s population. Such significant percentage may be considered a comparative advantage for the country. However, if this opportunity is not used properly it can become a serious threat. Thus, developing policies and plans for this age group is a major priority. Social capital alongside other forms of capital can facilitate envisaged planning processes and help realize planning objectives. In this article, we present a multidimensional scale developed to measure social capital among the Iranian youth.  Using this scale, a survey of 4,500 persons in the age bracket of 15-29 (drawn from across the Iranian provinces) has been conducted. Results indicate weak social capital among the surveyed youth, in particular in terms of relations with associations and trust placed on non-acquaintances and officials. The effect of social and individual characteristics on social capital is found to be significant. In light of the significance of the aforementioned relations as well as the dominance of traditional social capital among the youth, enhancing the social milieu, strengthening civil institutions, and improving attitudes and actions of individuals are seen as necessary.

Abstract This article attempts to examine factors influencing students’ fanatic support for the Iranian football league. Aided by a questionnaire, this survey research was conducted on a sample with a volume of 232 students enrolled at YazdUniversity. The students were selected via random systematic sampling and cross-sectional methods. The Cronbach’s alpha was obtained to be at 0.825. Results indicate the existence of a significant relationship between role model and fanatic support for soccer teams. Moreover, between the amount of mass media consumption and fanatic support for the soccer teams, a significant relationship was found. Nonetheless, no indication of a relationship was seen between socio-economic status and the act of fanatic support. Nor was there any relationship between the majoring area of the students and fanatic support for the soccer teams. In addition, in our study we found out that fanatic support for the teams was gender sensitive in that it differed according to the students’ gender.

Abstract The aim of this paper is to conduct a sociological analysis on the Arab approaches to the question of civil society. It is a documentary study based on the literature of civil society. The study initially seeks to present an overview of the essential issues concerning the possibility of realization of civil society in the Moslem Arab countries of the Middle East. In conducting the analysis, the paper first exposes main questions that the Western social thinkers frequently ask when the subject of civil society comes under discussion. Then, the author presents an analysis of the native Arab approaches that attempt to answer these questions as discussed by the Western social thinkers. All these approaches can be said to be striving to explain the ambiguities that have come to appear in the literature. The non-Arab perspective supposedly recognizes the civil society as a feature of the modern Western society. In this view, the realization of civil society in the Moslem Arab countries is impossible for a variety of reasons. A summary of such reasons can be summed up as:  the alleged paradoxical, or contradictory, relationship between Islam and democracy; predominance of a hierarchal social structure in the Arab world; weakness of society versus power of religion and the state; and mere survival of the absolute state in these societies. In contrast to the non-native approach, there are three other perspectives adopted toward an exposition of the Arab civil society in the Moslem Arab countries; we call these perspectives Islamic, Liberal and Socialist ones. Although none of these is in accord with the Western model of civil society in all its dimensions, yet a negation of the Western model is not attempted either. On the contrary, these perspectives, declare the necessity and possibility of an Arab civil society due to extensive social and political changes in the Moslem Arab societies, changes that have occurred in the recent decades. 

Abstract The present article introduce Mahatma Gandhi’s thoughts (specially non-violence) and tries to study Gandhi‘s effects on social movements in the current world.

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