Social Sciences and Communications
M. Yazdchi; N. Sharifi; A. Sharifiyan
Abstract
This paper puts emphasis on the necessity of discussing positionality in qualitative research methods, especially ethnography. Evaluating a qualitative study requires the reader to get information about the researcher's positionality with respect to their various social identities (like gender, race, ...
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This paper puts emphasis on the necessity of discussing positionality in qualitative research methods, especially ethnography. Evaluating a qualitative study requires the reader to get information about the researcher's positionality with respect to their various social identities (like gender, race, class, ethnicity, ability, geographical location etc and with their intentions for doing the fieldwork, their feelings and emotions, and their relationships with the informants. This paper ties to analyze eight published papers and one book based on qualitative and ethnographic studies in the Iranian society. It examines the harms and consequences of failure in discussing a researcher's positionality by applying a critical ethnographic and reflexive approach. Indeed, the paper analyzes the writers' use of language, their reasoning for doing the research and the reflexive discussion of their positionality while doing the research and later in writing a research report. It argues that not observing the reflective approach in research and concealing the researcher's positionality deprives the reader of the possibility of identifying possible bias. The paper also discusses two other consequences that are more recognizable in academic writing in Iran: "Self-heroism" display of research. Consequently, instead of clarifying their intentions and understanding the field and its relations, researchers solve problems and offer quick solutions.
Cultural Studies
M.S. Zokaei
Abstract
Knowledge and perspective about cultural studies have been debated extensively in the global academic spaces and partly within Iran. However, the pedagogical requirements of this tradition have rarely been a topic for discussion. As a matter of fact, cultural studies’ project inevitably requires ...
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Knowledge and perspective about cultural studies have been debated extensively in the global academic spaces and partly within Iran. However, the pedagogical requirements of this tradition have rarely been a topic for discussion. As a matter of fact, cultural studies’ project inevitably requires teaching critical skills and analyses in classrooms. Relying on educational experiences of the author, the current paper aims to introduce some major challenges in the process of cultural studies pedagogy. Reliance on a formal teaching separated from social context, ambivalence and confusion on the concept of culture and cultural theory, difficulties in providing critical teaching and drawing boundaries of popular culture are amongst the major challenges faced by academics attached with cultural studies in Iran. It therefore can be argued that to be efficient and dynamic, and to preserve its distinction as a critical discipline, cultural studies needs today to employ educational initiatives that not only serve multi-layered historical understanding of Iranian society and culture but also fit with a reformistic cultural policy-making.
Higher Education
F. Lolaee; S. Bastani; M. Farasatkhah
Abstract
The dramatic changes that have taken place in the field of information and communication in the present age have led to fundamental changes in various parts of human life. The important point is that the emergence of virtual technologies is not just a conventional technical development but contains a ...
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The dramatic changes that have taken place in the field of information and communication in the present age have led to fundamental changes in various parts of human life. The important point is that the emergence of virtual technologies is not just a conventional technical development but contains a cultural nature. The university is also one of the institutions that has been particularly affected by these developments. Such conditions have changed the relationship between students and professors, their way of accessing information and resources, creating and sharing educational content, and so on. The purpose of this article is to study the experience of virtualization and academic culture. This is a qualitative research that has applied a phenomenological method with semi-structured interviews. Participants were purposefully selected from among students, graduates, faculty members, and university administrators. Data were analyzed using the thematic analysis technique which resulted in 10 semantic clusters. The results of the interviews show a duality in responses, with some interviewees emphasizing the functions of virtualization in university culture in terms of communication, education and lifestyle. They believe that virtualization has opened doors to universities. The other category, however, explains the negative consequences of virtualization in academic culture and its various dimensions. The results indicate that with virtualization, important changes have occurred in various dimensions of the university culture that should be considered at micro and macro levels.
Sociology
A, Morshedi; M. Hadjizadeh Meimandi; M. Mashalchi
Abstract
This article tries to inspect the typology of the mourning communities in Yazd based on the content of monodies and their general orientation. This research is interpretive and the research method is based on grounded theory. Data collection was done by semi-structured interviews with 22 informed people. ...
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This article tries to inspect the typology of the mourning communities in Yazd based on the content of monodies and their general orientation. This research is interpretive and the research method is based on grounded theory. Data collection was done by semi-structured interviews with 22 informed people. The sample have been selected from the group’s chief, the poet, the weeper, the panegyrist and the active group members. The researches have shown that the mourning communities in Yazd were have been put into type such as reflexivity, identity oriented and ideological (movement oriented) communities. The properties of the reflexivity community can be such example as: “time coverage glance at the Ashura history”, “critical vision to contemporary Islamic societies”, “putting an emphasis on human general concepts” and “critic of the discourse of the Islamic republic of Iran”. The property of identity oriented can be as the following “the static vision in the Ashura history”, “mournful and consolatory vision”, "emphasis on Shiite identity", “bound to the borders of the Shiite identity of the Islamic republic of Iran. The property of the ideological community is “the time coverage glance at the Ashura history”, “the school vision”, “putting an emphasis on the Shiite jihad” and “bound to the discourse borders of Islamic Republic of Iran”.
Hossein Afrasiabi; Yasin Khorrampour
Abstract
Universalism in the context of information and communication technology has lead to fading of the boundaries of time and place.This process is allowed to enter a new era called postmodernism. Postmodernism has challenged modern characteristics such as reason and progress. The cultures of postmodern societies ...
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Universalism in the context of information and communication technology has lead to fading of the boundaries of time and place.This process is allowed to enter a new era called postmodernism. Postmodernism has challenged modern characteristics such as reason and progress. The cultures of postmodern societies are surface and moving that is greatly influenced by media. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between universalism and cultural postmodernism among Youth in city of Yazd. Research method was survey and sample contained 384 youth aged 16-29 in city of Yazd. Sampling method was random stratified multistageand data collected by a researcher designed questionnaire. Results showed that there is a significant relationship between universalism and cultural postmodernism. There was a significant relationship between transnational norms of universalism with other aspects of cultural postmodernism, except consumerism. Multiple regression results showed that two dimensions of universalism explain 22 percent of cultural postmodern variance.
Mohammad Saeed Zokaee
Abstract
The establishment of Cultural Studies departments in Iran and also the big wecome it has received amongst public intellectuals outside university, while far from a distinct theoretical tradition, has nonetheless trnasfoemed the ideology, agenda, approaches and esistemiological and methodological orientation ...
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The establishment of Cultural Studies departments in Iran and also the big wecome it has received amongst public intellectuals outside university, while far from a distinct theoretical tradition, has nonetheless trnasfoemed the ideology, agenda, approaches and esistemiological and methodological orientation of mainstram social sciences in Iran. Drawing on the writers' 10 years eduacational experience at Allameh Tabataba'I University and also content analyzing of more than 100 master thesis of Cultural Studies graduates, I argue that methodological diversity, a closer link: between theory and method and reliance on a wider range of data analysis strategies have caused a radical change in the mainstream social science research policy and has put forward new agendas in the study of culture and society in Iran thereby bridging humanities and social sciences.
