Sociology
Ardeshir Entezari; Fatemeh Derakhshan
Abstract
Cultural and artistic capacities are enhanced by utilizing the talents of vulnerable individuals, which strengthens their social skills and creates employment opportunities at both individual and community levels. Cultural and artistic empowerment programs have been successfully implemented in ...
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Cultural and artistic capacities are enhanced by utilizing the talents of vulnerable individuals, which strengthens their social skills and creates employment opportunities at both individual and community levels. Cultural and artistic empowerment programs have been successfully implemented in various vulnerable urban and rural areas worldwide, transforming these regions into well-known tourist destinations. This article employs a descriptive-analytical approach, utilizing available data and information to examine two case studies: one international and one domestic. The international example is La Rambla street in Barcelona, Spain, where the talents of marginalized individuals are showcased through live art performances. This initiative not only empowers vulnerable groups but also establishes La Rambla as one of the most attractive tourist centers. In Iran, similar initiatives have been observed, such as the empowerment of local women on Hormoz Island, who create art using the island’s colored sands. Additionally, the Yamal startup event on Qeshm Island has leveraged the region's environmental and cultural resources, fostering social participation among the local population and generating employment, particularly for women. As a result, these efforts have transformed the area into a popular tourist destination.
Keywords: Economy of Culture, Cultural and Artistic Capacities, Social Damage, Deprivation, Empowerment, Tourism.
Introduction
Social damage and congestion, along with their increasing trends, have created a worrying situation in the country. These issues arise not only from the abnormal or deviant behavior of individuals and existing weaknesses but are also often rooted in macro and structural problems, as well as a lack of attention to societal capacities and strengths. This neglect can lead to deprivation and various forms of social harm.
One of the most effective ways to prevent and control these harms is to leverage social, cultural, and economic capacities. By transforming the costs associated with social injuries into opportunities, we can utilize culture and art as key tools. Art provides numerous avenues to prevent and alleviate harms, particularly for vulnerable and marginalized groups. Many developed countries are investing in this area, drawing from their reserves and cultural heritage to harness the potential of art in reducing social issues.
The occurrence of social harms is influenced by various social and individual contexts. By identifying and utilizing existing cultural and artistic capabilities, we can purposefully empower vulnerable groups, enhance their employment opportunities, and ultimately generate income at both micro and macro levels, thereby fostering the cultural economy.
Our country possesses rich civilizational, cultural, and artistic resources that can be mobilized to support disadvantaged individuals and mitigate social harms. This can also attract tourism and strengthen the cultural economy. This article will examine both foreign and domestic examples, highlighting the role of culture and art in preventing, addressing, and reducing social harms, particularly poverty, while promoting tourism attractions within the framework of cultural economic development.
Therefore, the central question of this study is: How can we transform the threat of deprivation and the portrayal of social issues, which often elicits pity, into a capacity for sustainable alleviation of deprivation and the removal of urban blight?
Methodology
In this study, we aim to utilize the experiences gained from cultural and artistic empowerment programs targeting marginalized communities in vulnerable areas. A descriptive-analytical approach has been employed, utilizing library research methods. Various programs and policies for the cultural and artistic empowerment of disadvantaged groups have been successfully implemented worldwide, particularly in vulnerable urban areas and underutilized regions, such as villages, transforming them into renowned tourist destinations. One notable example is La Rambla in Barcelona, Spain. This street has been developed to harness the talents of economically disadvantaged individuals through live artistic performances. This initiative not only fosters social participation and income generation but also enhances the street's appeal as a tourist attraction.
In Iran, however, there are limited examples, especially in rural and marginalized areas, that could serve as models for broader societal application. One such example is the empowerment of local women on Hormoz Island through sand painting. This initiative, which leverages the island's environmental and cultural resources, has successfully engaged and employed women, ultimately transforming the area into a tourist destination. The necessary data, information, and images related to this topic have been gathered through documents, policies, reports, relevant websites, and the experiences and observations of researchers in both Spain and Iran.
Results
La Rambla is a prominent street in the center of Barcelona. Originally, the La Rambla route was a stream that often ran dry and was polluted. Today, it stands as one of the busiest centers in Barcelona, especially during peak tourist season. The street's popularity among visitors has transformed it into a vibrant hub for entertainment and sightseeing. As the most famous street in Barcelona, La Rambla exemplifies the city’s success in creating public spaces that encourage social interaction and walking as part of daily life. This has led to the creation of various job opportunities, making La Rambla a significant tourist attraction.
La Rambla has served as a lifeline for countless individuals seeking to earn a living through their art. Recognized as one of the most iconic pedestrian streets in the world, it provides a unique platform for street artists. However, alongside its advantages, the street also faces challenges that the government and municipality are working to address through various initiatives.
In contrast, two similar examples in Iran—Hormoz and Qeshm Islands—demonstrate their cultural and tourism potential. Hormoz Island, located in the Persian Gulf just 8 km from Bandar Abbas, is renowned for its geological diversity and has been dubbed a "geological paradise." A key strength of Hormoz Island lies in its local capacity for tourism and the attraction of visitors, which has been highlighted by Dr. Ahmed Nadalian in recent years. Local women have been trained to paint with the island’s-colored soil and sand or to create patterns on handmade objects, fostering their participation and employment.
The establishment of a museum on Hormoz Island has further influenced the island's tourism trajectory, transforming it into not just a tourist destination but also a hub for environmental and social artists. Additionally, the "Yamal" public events series, focused on innovation in cultural heritage, tourism, and handicraft development in Qeshm, organized by the startup Mammoth, plays a vital role in promoting sustainable development through local community participation. This initiative aims to reduce deprivation and generate income, aligning with land use and development planning that respects the local community’s cultural worldview and metatextual indicators, particularly emphasizing "native knowledge."
Such a community-oriented approach, aimed at reviving, preserving, and codifying the local knowledge of historical settlements, can help protect the limited natural resources and biodiversity that are at risk, while also supporting the often-marginalized residents.
Conclusions
Social harms do not necessarily require a pathological perspective; often, they need attention to the capacities and strengths that can help planners and implementers create conditions for overcoming these challenges. Cultural and artistic capacities in any society, especially those with a rich heritage, can not only prevent harm but also transform existing issues into strengths and opportunities.
Art, through social action, plays a crucial role in reducing social damage and alleviating poverty by changing the attitudes and mindsets of marginalized groups toward their circumstances and empowering them. Empowerment of the underprivileged is a process that enables individuals to organize themselves, develop self-awareness, and advocate for their rights, allowing them to make independent choices and gain control over resources, ultimately helping to eliminate their disadvantaged status.
On one hand, artistic abilities are essential for socializing individuals and fostering effective communication within society. On the other hand, by utilizing the cultural and artistic potential of vulnerable populations, we can strengthen their social skills, empower them, create employment opportunities, and provide conditions for income generation at both individual and societal levels, leading to economic development
Simin Veisi; Ardeshir Entezari; Saeed Zokaei; Ali Akbar Tajmazinani
Abstract
Our purpose in this research is to identify the types, strategies and consequences of constructing of justice. Most of the definitions of justice are made by youth and in the Iranian virtual space. Therefore, the main method is virtual ethnography and the data was analyzed by semiotic reading and thematic ...
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Our purpose in this research is to identify the types, strategies and consequences of constructing of justice. Most of the definitions of justice are made by youth and in the Iranian virtual space. Therefore, the main method is virtual ethnography and the data was analyzed by semiotic reading and thematic analysis. Types include agentic/critical, responsible, utopian, individualistic and national/transnational justice. Distributive, procedural and interactional justice are the most represented. Although epistemic justice is not expressed directly, it is seen in most definitions. Similarities can be seen between some aspects of the Islamic definition of justice with the Marxist, human rights, and liberal definitions of justice, although the latest definition simultaneously emphasizes individualism. There are strategies such as integrating the definitions of justice, iconizing, the role of power with various discourses, and resisting it in virtual space which has led to elitist definitions of justice, virtual agency of users due to the lack of direct possibility to bargain with power, dual otherizing, resistance to otherizing, and the spread of negative emotions. There was a lack of space in the dialogue between the youth and the power around justice.
Pegah Roshanshomal; Hasan Saraie; Ardeshir Entezari; Mahmoud Moshfegh
Abstract
In recent years, many family concepts have undergone semantic changes. Since the child is the main focus of the family, parents and women's understanding of this concept will determine many decisions in the field of fertility. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the "meaning of a child" and examine ...
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In recent years, many family concepts have undergone semantic changes. Since the child is the main focus of the family, parents and women's understanding of this concept will determine many decisions in the field of fertility. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the "meaning of a child" and examine women's understanding of this concept. This research describes the actor's understanding of the meaning of a child with a qualitative approach. The data were collected through in-depth interviews with twenty married women with children and without children in Tehran by purposive sampling and analyzed by using Smith's six-step technique. The main theme of the research showed that a child is a dynamic and influential concept. In the emotional view, the themes of "good feeling," "filling the scene of life," and "hardness and sweetness" and in the supportive view, the themes of "generational support," "old age support," and "spiritual support" emerged from the findings. A child is a double-edged sword, which means that it is both an obstacle to growth and a factor for success and growth. Growth and development in the personal and marital sphere is one of the most important meanings of a child. A child is a container for filling emotions, which contributes to the stability and continuity of marriage by injecting good feelings. The findings of this study were able to present a clear picture of the meaning of a child.Keywords: Qualitative Method, Theme Analysis, Meaning, Child, Women, Tehran. IntroductionAs a result of the transition of the family after the Industrial Revolution, the form of families changed from extended to nuclear, and after that, choosing a spouse changed from an unconscious and forced state to a conscious and selective action. Accordingly, the age of marriage and after that the age of having children increased, and the family became more damaged in terms of continuity. Behind all these changes, what is important is the change of the most important function of the family, i.e. reproduction of the generation. In the necessity and importance of the issue, it is enough to pay attention to the age pyramid of the population, which is moving towards old age. What has happened in the field of reproductive behavior and leads the population towards old age is the concern of many thinkers. Therefore, focusing on the child and its meaning, in the first step, is much more important and necessary than establishing positive laws. The changes that have occurred in the field of family and fertility behavior indicate that deeper and more radical changes have occurred in the mind, i.e. the bed of meaning formation, the result of which was determined in practice.Research Question(s)What is the understanding of "child" by women in Tehran?What does a child mean from the point of view of married women?What meaning do the activists attribute to the child?What is the variety of the mental meaning of the activists of the child?Literature ReviewKarimi and Samani's findings showed that Iran has been a child-loving society and infertile people or people who do not have children for any reason are under severe pressure from the society. This causes many newlyweds to try to "be like everyone else" in order to gain social approval (Karimi 2016: 111). The results of Farahani and Kayani's research showed that the meaning of a child has changed over time. The view of today's women has changed compared to the women of previous generations. The change of meaning with the passage of time does not mean a change in the value of the child, because perhaps with the passage of time, not only the value of the child has not decreased, but a rational, perfectionist, and measured look for the decision on the time of childbearing and its number, is indicative of the value and quality of the child. So people tend to prepare the conditions in such a way that they can raise a child with better quality (Farahani 2015: 99). The findings of Hashminiya's research showed that economic components, parents' lost opportunity costs, family income, and employment status are influential in the attitude towards the child and shaping its meaning (Hasheminia 2017: 61).Kagi's research results indicate three different types of credits for children; 1. The economic value and benefit that requires the material participation of children in the family. (In childhood as a labor force and in adolescence and youth as a provider of old age security) 2. Psychological values, including happiness, pride, fun, love, hope, and companionship 3. Social and traditional values referring to the social acceptance of parents (Kagitcibasi: 2015: 374). Deir realized that happiness and personal well-being are among the meanings that parents attach to their children. Children are necessary to maintain the security of the marriage bond and create social security for parents in their old age and to preserve the lineage and name (Dyer 2007: 73). The findings of Rani and Babu's research indicated that economic, social, demographic and psychological factors are mixed with the explanation of the concept of child. In developing countries like India, economic drivers influence fertility behavior. The economic value of children includes their participation in work and creating a sense of security for parents in their old age. If children can be useful to their parents in these two areas, then having many children seems completely rational (Rani 2003).Materials and MethodsThis research, with a qualitative approach, has reconsidered the awareness of the meaning of child among married women with and without children. In choosing the questions to start the interview, along with exploratory interviews, we benefited from the meaning-oriented theories in the sociology of knowledge school, and from the child-oriented theories in the field of demography. Data were collected through individual in-depth interviews with 25 married women (with children and without children) in the age range of 30 to 50 years old in Tehran, with targeted sampling and with maximum diversity, and using thematic content analysis (TA), analysis and the final report was prepared.ResultsThe meaning of a child from women's points of view is the result of the interaction of cultural and social contexts in which a person is located at a certain point in time. The meaning of a child from women's points of view is the result of many factors and events. What is considered as meaning is the result of gathering a set of external and internal factors that the actor encounters throughout his life. Considering the mentioned fact and the analysis of available data, the main theme of this research is that: "A child is a conceptual combination of emotional, intellectual, individual and collective fluid elements. This cultural entity gives meaning to a mother's life and plays a significant role in the construction of personal, sexual, and adult identity and the development of activist rationality.ConclusionThere are benefits and losses in every choice made by an active community activist, and no choice is without cost. The fertility behavior of the studied women (having or not having a child) is a kind of selective and conscious action along with rationality, which is formed in the context of child perception. How women see a child in society and what position and meaning they attach to it is the turning point that makes them choose to have or not have a child. In choosing not to have children, the activist experiences both personal growth and a degree of deprivation. On the other hand, having a child can be both a factor of destruction and a factor of growth.
Ardeshir Entezari; Fatemeh Derakhshan
Abstract
According to the prevailing approach to development, the path of growth, at various micro and macro levels, is through production and focus on high value-added industries such as cultural industries.Planning and management in the process of production,distribution and consumption of cultural products ...
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According to the prevailing approach to development, the path of growth, at various micro and macro levels, is through production and focus on high value-added industries such as cultural industries.Planning and management in the process of production,distribution and consumption of cultural products is one of the most well-known and important tasks of governments in the world, which is considered as the main axis in the development of Economics of culture(DOEC).Government role-playing in EC needs characteristics to facilitate the development process. One of the most important of these indicators, which is based on the existence of institutional infrastructure, is the combined indicators of good governance(GG).The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between GG indicators and the DOEC of countries.Using the method of comparative-quantitative analysis among 20 developed and developed countries in EC and Iran, the DOEC and GG has been studied. The results show that Iran's DOEC and GG indicators are far from developed and developed countries and this indicates the underdevelopment of Iran's EC. Also, the results of correlation analysis and multiple regression show that there is a direct relationship between the index of GG and the DOEC of these countries with an acceptable intensity(R2 = 0.50).
Sociology
Ali Entezari
Abstract
The current study comprises the survey of comments and evaluations from students regarding the gender segregation plan which was done as a part of a comprehensive research about this topic. In the conceptual and theoretical framework of the research based on the works of Erving Goffman, Sandra Bem and ...
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The current study comprises the survey of comments and evaluations from students regarding the gender segregation plan which was done as a part of a comprehensive research about this topic. In the conceptual and theoretical framework of the research based on the works of Erving Goffman, Sandra Bem and others, and through criticizing the works, this study aims to examine gender segregation with an impartial approach. The statistical population of the research included students from Allameh Tabataba’i University, University of Tehran, and an all-female women’s university, from which 1350 students were chosen through a randomized and quota sampling based on gender, education, university and faculty. The results show that the majority of the students from Allameh Tabataba’i University and University of Tehran who were the most important recipient of this plan were resistant towards it. Only 13.7 percent of Allameh Tabataba’i students and about 13 percent of University of Tehran students has a positive attitude towards gender segregation in universities. This percentage reaches 31 percent in the all-female women’s university. 57.4 percent of Allameh Tabataba’i students have demanded for the plan to be terminated, and 59.1 percent of the students of University of Tehran are against the implementation of this plan at their university.
