فصلنامه راهبرد فرهنگ
پیاپی 20 (زمستان 1391)

Imam Khomeini led the Islamic Revolution of Iran, which left widespread impacts on the Islamic Middle East and the World of Islam. In the discourse of revived Islam, whose formation he helped and within whose framework he spoke, West is represented and in fact otherized in a unique method and its essential differences with the East and Islam are specified. Attempts have been made in the present paper to describe the way of representation of the West by studying the viewpoints of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Motahari. In this discourse, attention to the West and its otherization is replaced with self-improvement and self-knowledge, particularly in the viewpoints of Imam Khomeini. He is not seeking a dialogue with the political and epistemological theory of the West, rather he is after conceptualization of the idea of self-improvement.

Today, the idea of production of religious science is a well-known idea in the world of Islam. Extensive discussions have been carried out about this issue since the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and particularly in recent years. Despite strong tendency towards production of religious science, there are hard-line oppositions to this issue, specially by some Iranian professors including Abdul Karim Soroush, Ali Paya, and Mostafa Malekian. The opponents of religious science forward the following four statements: production of religious science is not necessary; production of religious science is not possible; production of religious is not desirable; and production of religious science is not ethical. The present article is an attempt to study the above mentioned four contentions. It is argued that none of the above contentions could be a theoretical obstacle in the way of religious science idea. However, the viewpoints of the opponents should be taken into consideration so that educational, research, planning and policymaking activities in the field of religious science remain free from the shortcomings mentioned by the opponents.

Backgrounds and Intrinsic religiosity has an important effect on mental health. There have been different ways to explain this effect. This research was conducted to determine the mediating role of challenge appraisal in the relation between intrinsic religiosity and healthy physical, mental and spiritual behaviors. In the present study 300 girl students were selected by random cluster sampling. The data was collected through The ‘Age-Universal’ I-E Scale, the Body-Mind-Spirit Wellness Behavior and Characteristic Inventory and the Appraisal of Life Events Scale. The theoretical model was tested within a structural equation-modeling framework to identify both direct and indirect effects. The results indicate overall model fitness. Although direct effects of intrinsic religiosity on the body-mind-spirit wellness behaviors were not significant, indirect effect of intrinsic religiosity on the body-mind-spirit wellness behaviors was fully mediated by challenge appraisals. the present study sustains a theory that suggests that intrinsic religiosity engenders a challenge approach to stress that aids well-being.

The objective of the present paper is to determine the relationship between perfectionism, perceived stress and social support with academic burnout among the MBBS students. Hence, 200 students (120 girl and 80boys) were selected from amongst the MBBS students of the Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences through stratified random sampling. The data were collected through Cohen, et. al, Perceived Stress Inventory (1983); Stabor Positive and Negative Perfectionism Inventory (2007); Philips Social Support Inventory (PSSI) (1984) and Brosu, et.al. Academic Burnout Inventory (2007). The data were analyze by employment of Pearson correlation coefficient and hierarchical step-by-step multiple regression. The findings of the research indicate that perceived stress and incompatible perfectionism have significant positive relation with academic burnout, while compatible perfectionism and social support have significant negative relation with academic burnout. Also, the results of step-by-step multiple regression through hierarchical method indicate that perceived stress is the best predictor of student academic burnout. The results are compatible with previous studies and the variables can be good predictors of academic burnout.

The preparation of the Country’s Master Plan of Science is among the major objectives of scientific and cultural centers of the country. Despite different approaches to the concept of master plan and the status and role of its different sections, the issue of education enjoys a special status in this plan. Given that many countries have already formulated their macro-policies of science and technology, a comparative study in this regard can open new vistas for the formulation of similar policies in our country. Hence, the present paper is an attempt to study the role and status of education in national plans of science and technology of nine countries, i.e. Spain, Finland, Czech Republic, Ireland, India, Japan, Taiwan, Uganda and South Africa. Although the policies of these countries are not suitable for duplication, the findings of the present study regarding their weak and strong points can offer noteworthy points for policymakers of science and technology of our country with regard to formulation of the master plan of science and technology. The most important findings of the present study are: product-based approach to education; generality of the points regarding education in this document; marginalization of education compared to economy, research and technology in particular; and necessity of integrated specific theoretical approach behind the issues related to education in the master plan. On this basis, the attention of the policymakers is drawn to the point that in their probable review of the master plan of science of the country as well as in preparation of downstream and executive documents and plans, it will be necessary to cast a new look at the status of education in plans of science and technology of the country.

Cultural intelligence is defined as capability to learn new patterns in cultural interactions and offering correct behavioral answers to the said patterns. Given the cultural diversity and mutli-culturality of the Iranian society, the main objective of the present paper is to measure the condition of cultural intelligence and the factors that influence it. The research method used in the present paper is descriptive and correlational.. The statistical population of the study included the plus-15 citizens of regions of the city of Sanandaj. The size of sample was 340 calculated on the basis of Kukran formula with maximum dispersion and 5 percent error. The sampling method was multiple cluster sampling. The descriptive results of the research indicate that condition of variables of research, particularly its dependent variable, that is, cultural intelligence and its dimensions is desirable. The analytical results of the research indicate that the independent variables, that is, cultural empathy, social initiative and ethnicism have a significantimpact on cultural intelligence. The impact of social initiative and cultural empathy are direct while that of ethnicism in accordance to theoretical expectations is negative and reverse. Finally, it is expected that 24% of the variance of cultural intelligence can be explained by combined linear variance of cultural empathy, social initiative, social ethnicism and economic ethnicism.

Over the past few years, the subculture of exhibitionist car driving has attracted the attention of any social and cultural researchers in our country. These phenomena have been formed in interaction with general social trends. Therefore, the study of these phenomena would facilitate a better understanding of these trends and currents. The present paper is an attempt to study the grounds that cause formation of subculture of exhibitionist car driving among the youth. In fact, understanding of the latent and open layers of this subculture is the first attempt of this study. Hence, while reviewing the conceptual framework of the subject and related theories, the viewpoints of Hebdige of Birmingham School have been used for the extraction of some ideas. The research method employed was qualitative and the data were collected through interview with 18 youth of the city of Rasht. They were selected through snowball sampling method. The findings of the study indicate that the subculture of exhibitionist car driving is being formed among the youth of the city. More importantly, this subculture is a process of identification, exhibition vis-à-vis others, attraction of the attention of opposite sex and also a compensation for shortcomings in the field of cultural infrastructures and entertainment environments.