فصلنامه جامعه شناسی کاربردی
سال سی و چهارم شماره 3 (پیاپی 91، پاییز 1402)

Virtual social networks have created a revolution in communications, interactions, and sharing of ideas. They have become a vital and effective factor in the emergence and life of protest movements. The aim of this research was to obtain the formation pattern of protest movements in Iran in the context of social networks. Under the influence of virtual social networks, the recent protest events in a wide range of cities all over the country were found to face severe shocks in Iran's official political space and it put many effects on the country's cyber space policymaking by creating a new trend in the implementation and organization of social protests. The common point of these events, i.e., the nationwide scope of the protests, was community-oriented, indicating the prominent role of virtual social networks so that it could be said that relying on new media technologies was very evident in terms of mobilizing resources and organizing protests in these protest movements. Using the theory of the network society, this article tried to answer the question of what pattern existed between the use of virtual social networks and the formation and evolution of protest movements in the country. Using in-depth and semi-structured interviews with academic elites in the field of communication and political science, this article attempted to investigate the mobilization mechanism of protest movements through social networks.

To achieve the mentioned goal, 14 elites related to the subject were selected through targeted sampling by using a qualitative approach and the method of content analysis.  In-depth and semi-structured interviews were conducted both face-to-face and non-face-to-face by using online communication software due to the spread of the Corona disease. Coding and data analysis of the conducted interviews were done manually by using the method of Bravan and Clark (2006). In addition to collecting the primary data by conducting semi-structured interviews with the interviewees, the secondary data from such sources as government websites, reports, books, and articles were used to identify the key events and processes related to the study events in order to facilitate the research line.

78 key concepts, 26 compact semantic units, 7 sub-themes, and 3 main themes were organized. The research findings showed that social networks affected the protest movements based on 3 general themes: "normization", "mobilization and organization", and "field reaction". Social platforms can help protest movements in 3 stages: Normization is the stage of creating community interest and support for a movement. Social movements in the context of social networks try to polarize the society and convince people to join the formed protest movement. In the second stage, the technological possibilities of new media, such as low cost, high speed, and wide range of information exchange create structures for achieving goals in the movement according to the mental readiness of the polarized society. In the third stage, protests enter the real space following the virtual space. Due to the fact that physical protests disrupt the city life, the police have to deal with it. Here, videos of protesters and police-clashing quickly go viral on the social networks, providing an opportunity to create a new cycle of protests. Production of multiple protest cycles in short time intervals causes social instability and reduces social security. It seems that the studied protest events indicated improvement of the situation and limited changes in the framework structure of the political system. Although a revolutionary approach could be seen in the semantic and rhetorical structures of these movements, they could not reach the stage of institutionalization despite their success in the stage of social norming and social agitation. When they reach formalization, they can be classified as reform movements. In social movements, supporters of the movements use different tactics in social networks to normalize, mobilize, and organize people and bring them to the stage. Although the current trend showed the importance of the new communication tools for the creation and survival of protest movements, the power of the government in controlling the Internet bandwidth and filtering social networks revealed that the government could weaken the protest movements by removing the support cycle of web-based social platforms. By emphasizing on maintaining social security and preventing the destabilizing political and security scenarios, these movements failed to achieve their goals.

Social participation is one of the important concepts of sociology and branches of participation, which includes a wide range of activities like membership and cooperation with religious, scientific, social, economic, professional, occupational, local, regional, and national associations, altruism, and cooperation in holding various ceremonies. By organizing groups, social capital expands, empowers social groups, and strengthens social trust and solidarity. It makes the society dynamic and its conditions unpredictable. The purpose of the study was to  identify the most important dimensions of social participation among students and answer the following question: What are the most important factors and dimensions affecting social participation of Iranian students in the university?  

The research was carried out with a practical purpose and a qualitative method.  A meta-synthesis methods was used by studying information sources in the field of factors affecting social participation of students. Meta-synthesis includes the stages of choosing the research question and goal, collecting the related researches, making a decision about inclusion and exclusion of studies, and evaluating and ranking of studies. It is based on mutual translation of the findings of studies and combination of translations. This research used the 7-step meta-synthesis method of Sandelowski and Barroso. The statistical population of this research included all the studies on students' social participation that were available in the University Jihad System (SID) and database of the country's publications (Magiran and Irandoc). In this systems, the terms ‘social participation’, ‘student participation’, and ‘participation’ were searched by limiting the search to Persian language and the time period of 2011-2021. A total of 34 articles were obtained and out of these 34 articles, 20 articles were accepted based on the meta-synthesis criteria. In this research, the criteria for selecting articles were as follows:Place of article publication: accepted articles in the database of approved scientific journals on Magiran, Sid, and Irandoc sitesTopic: Factors affecting students' participation in Iranian societyGeneral scope: students’ social participationResearch method meta-synthesisResearch time frame: 2011-2021Language used: PersianDiscussion of.

The research findings showed that the 5 social, individual, collaborative, cultural, and psychological factors affected the students' social participation. The social factor included social trust, efficiency of scientific associations, benefits of membership in associations, and social vitality. The individual factor included age, gender, education, field of study, employment, and status. The collaborative factor included social participation, cooperative activity, and cooperative behavior. The cultural factor included media, television, social networks, religiosity, and culture. The psychological factor included feeling of powerlessness, life satisfaction, self-respect, cooperative spirit, and social tolerance. The results revealed that all the social, economic, political, and cultural aspects of the students’ lives developed with the increase and expansion of their participations in university affairs, while strengthening solidarity, improving the students’ life qualities, and finally reinforcing creativity and self-confidence. Several studies had confirmed and emphasized the findings of the current research, stating that social participation was affected by several factors, such as religious beliefs, historical background, social and economic bases, age, sex, race, ethnicity, structure, religion, cultural values, education, job, place of residence, personality, social capital, and people’s psychological characteristics of. Some emphasized the influence of education, income, and social status on social participation. Some others talked about the usefulness and benefit of participation and stated that people would take action if its benefit was more than its loss. According to the obtained results, the following measures will be suggested:Relevant organizations should encourage the students to have more participation by holding group and team competitions among them.Universities should encourage the students to participate more socially by holding special courses and providing the necessary conditions.

According to Mathis Kalmin, the question of "what makes intergroup marriage important from a sociological point of view" lies in its inherent dynamics: intergroup marriage does not merely reflect the boundaries that currently separate groups in the society, but also has the potential of cultural, social, and economic changes". (Rodriguezgarcia, 2015:25). Sistan and Baluchistan Province is one of the southern provinces of the country, which has a diverse ethnic and religious structure. From the distant past until now, there has been inter-group marriage among the different ethnic and religous groups and in this province. Today, due to the social, political, and cultural changes inside and outside the country, this issue has become more intense and important. Since ethnic and religious divisions in themselves have the potential to create and intensify social conflicts, inter-group marriages can be effective in reducing and adjusting these conflicts. Due to inter-group marriages, the absorption and integration of groups within each other are accelerated and cultural and social cohesions increase.

This research sought to analyze the semantic system of religiously different couples living together in Sistan and Baluchistan Province. Due to the sensitivity of the situation of the studied society and acquisition of deep and real information from qualitative research, in addition to discovering a conceptual model of this process based on the participants' points of view, the grounded theory methodology was used. In fact, the researcher sought to create a theory by examining and studying those, who were involved in similar action or interaction processes (Strauss & Corbin, 1999). To select the participants from different parts of Sistan and Baluchistan Province and due to the restriction of religious heterosexual marriage and lack of easy access, a targeted sampling method was firstly utilized.The selection criteria of the participants were based on the different religions of the couples living in Sistan and Baluchistan Province and their other differences and dissatisfaction with their married lives. In this research, the couples, who differed based on the type of religion in Islam, were selected in a way that one of them was Sunni and the other was Shia. The couples’ qualities of married life were determined by asking them to express their opinions about the following issues at the beginning of the interviews: satisfaction of married life with the spouse, feeling of regret for marrying a person of a different religion and recommendation of this form of marriage to others (for example, how is the relationship between you and your spouse now? What advice do you have for a girl and a boy, who want to get married in a similar way? Why do you want to marry a person of another religion? Have you ever regretted marrying your wife and why?). In case of expressing dissatisfaction and regret and disagreement with the spouse, more exploratory questions were asked (for instance, Describe your experience of being married to a person with another religion? What was your biggest disagreement during this period of your life? What happened when a disagreement occurred? How was it resolved? What were the circumstances that led to the disagreement? What consequences do you think marriage with a person with another religion has?). After analysis and classification of the interviews and comparison of their categories, the theoretical sampling was applied to complete the conceptual model.

Discussion of Results & Conclusion :

Despite the predominance of consanguineous marriage in Iran (Hashmi et al., 2013), the different forms of non-consanguineous marriages are especially observed in Sistan and Baluchistan Province as a province with a diverse cultural context. Due to the expansion of social dynamics and interactions in the modern world and the clash of different cultures with each other, the possibility of the formation of heterosexual ways of marriage in societies increases. What is important is that the regulations within the family are not the same among different social and cultural groups and marriage between two different cultures may lead to conflicts and family tensions in the absence of suitable contexts. Family conflict is different from other forms of conflicts because the family context is more compatible with the idea of unity and coherence, as well as completeness of relationships and close ties. The findings of the present research indicated that the couples under study experienced many family challenges and conflicts in the religious heterosexual family. The conflicts could range from a simple disagreement to acts of violence. People in the different religious families, who had been separated, experienced a different world with different feelings, meanings, paths, and lifestyles. In this way, the couples and their families faced many different challenges and consequences.The inappropriate and risky style of choosing a spouse causes family conflicts in the lives of couples of different religions. The most important factor that, if missing, can increase the family tensions of couples of different religions is non-peaceful and fanatical interactions in the family. In the context of society with cultural gaps, such as religious and ethnic conflicts, people desire for intra-group communications and inter-religious marriages can face many challenges. These challenges affect all family members, including husband, wife and children. It overshadows the quality of family interactions. This social process leads to family disintegration and finally couples and children’s dissatisfaction with their stressful life. Also, the religious heterogeneity of parents brings educational conflicts and mental turmoil to the family, especially to the children, which causes their distance and isolation according to the pluralistic point of view.

Introduction:

 Sociologists and researchers have an innate curiosity about the intricate tapestry of social challenges that arise as a consequence of rapid societal shifts. The impetus of growth and urbanization fueled by industrialization has ushered in transformative changes. It is essential, however, to recognize that within this paradigm shift, a complex array of challenges has taken root. At the forefront of these issues is the disheartening prevalence of working children, emblematic of the adverse consequences intertwined with societal evolution. Amid bustling urban landscapes where carefree play and laughter should define childhood, an alternate reality prevails. Rather than savoring the innocence of youth and investing in education for a brighter future, a disheartening number of children toil on the peripheries of sprawling cities. Robbed of their childhood, they grapple with poverty's weight and fall victim to injustice, casting a somber shadow over today's world (Afshani et al., 2011). The issue of working children is not an isolated matter; it is intricately woven into the fabric of Iranian society's evolving conditions and structural shifts. Over the decades, a complex interplay of factors has exacerbated this predicament. These include population growth, glaring socioeconomic disparities, entrenched poverty, and specter of unemployment. The allure of urban life coupled with the transition from tradition to modernity trigger migrations from rural areas to bustling cities. The disintegration of family bonds through divorce and the grip of addiction further compound this complex challenge (Mohrami, 2019). Child labor's proliferation is the consequence of intricate sociocultural and economic dynamics. Its ramifications reverberate across the society, hindering education and skill development, while sowing economic instability. Beyond these economic ramifications, child labor begets a host of societal maladies, from addiction and sexual exploitation to drug trade and criminal activities (Maghdas Jafari et al., 2012). In response, this research endeavored to unravel the societal factors fueling the surge of child labor in Mehrestan City. Two fundamental questions guided the research: What sociocultural factors catalyze the emergence of child labor? How should the significance and priority of these factors be assessed?

Materials & Methods  :

Methodologically, the research adopted a qualitative stance, employing an applied approach to data collection. Applying a cross-sectional framework, contingent on data acquisition timing, the entire working children population of Mehrestan City was the scope of this study. The research employed purposeful sampling, engaging in interviews with 20 working children until data saturation was reached. These semi-structured interviews facilitated comprehensive data extraction.

Discussion of Results & Conclusion :

Emerging from the labyrinth of data analysis were 8 prominent themes encapsulating the essence of the phenomenon of working children in Mehrestan City. These themes encompassed the insidious grip of addiction, pall of financial uncertainty, shadow of family violence, dynamics of migration, inadequate parental roles, educational disparities, subtle work subculture embedded within family networks, and vulnerabilities stemming from weak support infrastructures. Notably, the pivotal factors driving child labor included financial contributions to family expenses and parental employment status. A closely related facet was the persistent issue of insufficient family income coupled with family neglect and abuse. Collectively, these factors underpinned child labor predicament.In conclusion, the research underscored the pivotal roles of sociological factors in child labor enigma in Mehrestan City. Addressing these factors head-on could alleviate the plight of these vulnerable children. Comprehensive strategies were essential, focusing on enhancing the economic standing of disadvantaged families and providing essential parenting education. Simultaneously, fostering sustainable employment, supporting local crafts through microeconomic ventures, revitalizing agricultural industries, promoting educational equity, and developing resources for heightened parental awareness were the instrumental steps in dismantling child labor quagmire. Additionally, bolstering support organizations to aid needy families was crucial.In the grand tapestry of societal progress, recognizing and confronting complexities is incumbent upon us. This research served as a clarion call, urging collective efforts to mitigate the harsh realities faced by working children in Mehrestan City. Harnessing insights from this study can steer societies toward nurturing environments that prioritize the well-being, education, and holistic development of their youngest members.

Today, according to the intellectual growth that has taken place in societies and various organizations and the change in people's attitudes toward motivation and mental health, it is essential to pay attention to the factors that affect people’s mental health and consequently, the quantity and quality of people's work. The phenomenon of friendship in workplace is one of the factors that should be paid more attention to than ever and the factors affecting it should be identified due to the important consequences it seeks for organizations in the mentioned fields . It seems that organizational transparency can be one of them. According to the investigations carried out on the performance of Isfahan City Gas Company and the results of evaluations during the "Annual Shahid Rajaei Festival", as well as the "Administrative Health Improvement Project", the level of organizational transparency in the mentioned company over the years has not been very satisfactory. On the other hand, as this company is considered a private-government institution, the nature and quality of interpersonal relationships  have not been given the desired merit and the relevant workers have not been paid attention to despite the increasing importance of this issue. Considering the nature of the gas company, which is one of the institutions providing essential services to various parts of the society, identifying the factors affecting the employees’ motivations and attitudes is a vital issue because a large part of the employees’ work and levels of effort to achieve the organization's goals depends on their levels of satisfaction with the work environment and qualities of their relationships with other members of the organization. According to what was said and since no research had been done to determine the impact of organizational transparency on friendship at the workplace so far, the current research tried to obtain new information about the way of promoting organizational transparency of friendship in the workplace and its intensity during designing and testing some related hypotheses and then give it to those, who were involved in the relevant field, to take steps and improve organizational behavior and work processes of the organization so as to finally satisfy the customers. Accordingly, the question of whether there was a relationship between organizational transparency and friendship in the workplace was arised.

The current research was applied in terms of purpose and a descriptive survey in terms of nature. The statistical population of this research was consisted of 300 official employees, direct contracts, and third parties in Isfahan Gas Company. In this study, a stratified-random sampling method was used. 270 questionnaires were distributed and 250 analyzable ones were returned to be analyzed. The data were collected by using a questionnaire containing 28 items and a 5-point Likert scale was used to answer the questions. Construct and content validities were used to measure the validity of the questionnaire. To measure the construct validity, the confirmatory factor analysis technique was applied and the factor loadings of all the variables confirmed the construct validity of the questionnaire. To measure the content validity, the opinions of several professors of the management department of Isfahan University were used and their opinions approved the validity of the content of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was used to measure the reliability of the questionnaire and the results indicated its acceptable reliability.

In this research, organizational transparency was considered as the independent variable and participation of employees in organizational activities, accountability, employee’s access to information, and non-disclosure were considered as the dimensions of organizational transparency. Their impacts on friendship in the workplace were measured as the dependent variables. Through the structural equation method, it was determined that the structural model had a suitable fit. In other words, the observed data were largely consistent with the conceptual model of the research. According to the results of the hypothesis test and the significance level, all of them were confirmed and the impact of each hypothesis was estimated. All in all, according to the importance of the examined factors in this research, it was possible to improve the level of organizational transparency and then friendship in the workplace by using the practical suggestions mentioned at the end of this study, each of which was raised according to each confirmed hypothesis of the research.

Being engaged in multiple roles can affect a person’s health and well-being and the middle-aged people are usually exposed to this situation more than other age groups. Most of the western studies that have looked at this issue with a demographic lens have introduced middle age as a situation of being caught or sandwiched between the needs of two generations (children and parents). On the other hand, increasing women's participation in paid work means that more middle-aged women are faced with a conflict between their work and family responsibilities, a phenomenon often characterized by the term "double burden" or "second shift" (Bratberg et al., 2002; Hochschild & Machung, 2012). According to the demographic changes of the family in recent years, living arrangements in mid-life have become more complex and heterogeneous (Demey et al., 2011) so that some researchers have used the term "cluttered nest" to describe this period of life, which is in contrast to the “empty nest” stage, that is, when all children leave the parental home (Lingren & Decker, 1992). The available data in Iran showed that the age transition of population has entered the middle-age phase since 2015 (the population aged 30-64) and will remain in this phase for several decades. It is predicted that the share of middle-aged people in Iran will reach more than 50% between 2026 and 2031 (Abassi Shavazi and Sadeghi, 2017: 46). This research aimed to expand the information about the role behaviors of this group by exploring the pattern of multiplicity of roles and its relationship with some of their social and demographic characteristics in the context of the urban society of Iran. The paper tried to answer the following questions: 1) What proportion of middle-aged women and men participate in multiple roles? 2) How does the pattern of mid-life multiple roles change based on people’s socio-demographic characteristics?

Using the data from the latest Time Use Survey of Iran, this article examined the prevalence of occupancy and intensity of multiple roles, namely paid work, domestic work, and parenting, as well as the socio-demographic characteristics related to it. The statistical population of this survey included all people aged 15 and older living in urban households across the country and the data included all the daily activities of individuals, as well as demographic, economic and social variables, at the individual and household levels.The impacts of socio-demographic variables on people’s intersectionality of roles were assessed using the Poisson regression in the STATA statistical package (version 17). The dependent variable was defined as the number of intense roles, which ranged from zero to threeroles. The independent variables included gender, age group, marital status, education, and household size.

The findings showed that (1) multiple roles were more common in the middle age than in other age periods; (2) multiple roles were more prevalnent in men due to the low employment of women; (3) women were more involved in intense multiple roles than men and this pattern was due to the large amount of time that women spent on domestic activities.The results of Poisson regression analysis revealed that the household size reduced the number of intense roles for men and women. This situation indicated a wider division of labor in large households, which alleviated participation in intense multiple roles, especially for women. On the flip side of the coin, the findings showed that middle-aged people in smaller households faced more intense roles and therefore needed interventions to reduce this potentially traumatic experience. With increasing age, the number of women’s intense roles increased. This is in line with the hypothesis of role density in late mid-life and near retirement age (Patterson & Margolis, 2019). Married women were more likely to be engaged in intense roles than their widowed or divorced counterparts and college education reduced the number of intense roles for men, but a similar effect was associated with a lower confidence interval for women. Thus, midlife could be a difficult time for married women, who had multiple responsibilities, while being a wife and a housewife. Meanwhile, their physical abilities decreased with age, making this period stressful and unfavorable. In fact, the important finding of this article was the noticeable difference in the pattern of experiencing intense roles between men and women, which showed that the tasks related to the domestic role alone put a heavy burden on the shoulders of middle-aged women living in the urban areas of Iran so that its prevalence was more than 4 times that of the men’s heavy occupational role.Our results highlighted the need for investigating the impact of multiple-role occupancy on the health and well-being of middle-aged people at the national level and designing