احمدرضا اصغرپور ماسوله

This research took an interdisciplinary approach to the literature on sanctions. It examined the reasons for sanctions, as well as the effects and consequences of sanctions in general with a focus on anti-Iranian sanctions. The research aimed to represent and analyze the behaviors of the components within the digital network of sanctions. Iranian Twitter users were the target community for this article. However, the digital social reality of sanctions on Twitter was the result of all users who thought about, acted on, and were concerned with Iran sanctions. As a widely used social network where political news and interactions were frequently expressed and trending, Twitter was the most important community for investigating Iran sanctions. This was because those who imposed sanctions, as well as their defenders and opponents, were all present on this platform. As a result, a debate was unfolding on Twitter. Users on Twitter reproduced and redefined sanctions as an intertextual phenomenon, reintroducing it into the cycle of social reality production in the form of informal but impactful propositions. In general, the researchers in this study were aiming to conduct a big data analysis of the reactions and responses of activists within the Twitter space.

This research employed the Social Network Analysis (SNA) method. SNA is a technique for simulating and modeling communication between people, as well as the structure of networks. It also serves as a way to demonstrate the importance of individuals within a network. Approximately 2.4 million tweets in various languages were collected. After preprocessing the tweets and selecting those related to Iran, a total of around one million tweets, comprising both Farsi and English, were chosen for further analysis. Of these, roughly 24% were published in English, while the remaining 76% were in Persian.
 

It appeared that in a society with high internet penetration and a large percentage of university graduates, foreign sanctions combined with internal restrictions, such as censorship and discourse weaknesses, made the meaning-making and discourse-shaping battle on social networks unequal and, in some ways, defeated. Despite the direct presence of supporters and allies of the power core the Islamic Republic, as well as the creation and dissemination of numerous bots, the resulting discourse had little effect (whether positive or negative) on the broader network, except within its own cluster and the adjacent cluster. In fact, the resulting discourse was mostly confined within the network and had not expanded significantly in terms of its reach and influence. However, the moderate cluster of government supporters had greater intertextual influence on the formation and expansion of its own discourse, directly or indirectly affecting all other clusters. The cluster of dissidents had to be considered more effective than the cluster close to the government in shaping the meaning of sanctions in international discourses, wielding greater influence than the impact of Iranians abroad. The extracted network, like all other relationships (primarily from a Foucauldian perspective), was formed through the action and reaction with power institutions and ideology. The traces of this dynamic could be found either in the context, in intertextuality, or in the formation of digital practices.

The migratory experience presents complex challenges as migrants navigate their identities within host societies. These challenges can lead either to successful integration into new communities or to a state of unresolved suspension. This duality is particularly relevant for elite migrants, where the trajectories of migration and potential return can act as critical indicators of societal conditions and development. This study examines the various processes and factors that shape the migration experience and the identity challenges confronted by migrants. Social identity is understood as a dynamic construct, continuously influenced by contextual evaluations. Using an interpretive approach and grounded theory method, the research draws insights from narrative interviews with 19 Iranian migrants in Germany, which were analyzed using a three-stage coding technique. The findings indicate that Iranian migrants often reassess their home society through a Western perspective, giving rise to feelings of identity dislocation. The encountered challenges can result in two primary pathways: a fragmented process of socialization that contributes to unresolved suspension, or successful integration into the host society. When integration is achieved, the likelihood of return decreases, as these individuals are more entrenched in their new environment. Conversely, those who experience unresolved suspension may continue their economic activities in the host country while struggling with a sense of liminality. This may ultimately compel them to return home due to the strong pull of social ties and the difficulties of establishing meaningful connections in the host society. This interplay of identity and belonging informs the broader understanding of the migrant experience in contemporary contexts.

The progress, development and dynamism of societies depend on the forces affecting them. Children and young adults as the future generations and decision makers will become useful and effective people for society if they go properly through the process of socialization. By their presence and activity in various social and economic fields, they will create stability in society. Thus, a society can have pioneers who have invested in the education of their children. The function of socialization is to adapt people with the dominant culture of the society. The transfer and continuation of values that aren’t in line with the economic development of societies shows that socialization hasn’t been successful. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors influencing the socialization of consumption among the youth of Tehran. Twenty-three participants of 20 to 35 were selected purposefully for the study. According to the coding process, the central category was “continuity of multiplicity of consumption behavior”. The central category showed that the consuming behavior of the society is not a coherent and integrated one and psychological, economic and socio-cultural causes, contextual conditions (economic and cultural characteristics of the family, sanctions and irresponsibility of the producer and the decreasing influence of parents), and intervening conditions such as social role-modeling and family upbringing style have caused the transfer of different cultural values and patterns to individuals, some of which push the society towards development and others do not. Due to the transfer of these values, it can be said that the function of consumption socialization has been disrupted and it has failed to adapt consumers with the dominant culture of the society and push the society towards development.

During the last two decades, some international treaties have played a decisive role in facilitating scientific collaboration between member countries. For this reason, the study aims to predict the effect of Iran's membership in these treaties on three things: First, the amount of scientific collaboration between Iran and the members of each treaty; Second, the total amount of Iran's international scientific collaboration; Third, the extent of Iran's dependence on scientific collaboration with the USA, as the most key actor in the international scientific collaboration network. According to the background, the treaties that have a significant impact on international scientific collaboration are G7, G20, EU, OECD, OPEC, APEC, and BRICS. This study is based on the simulation method (with an agent-based modeling approach). This method was used to simulate the network of scientific collaboration between independent countries with more than one million people in the period of 2023-2042. The secondary data required for the simulation were collected from the Web of Science database and the United Nations database. Hypotheses related to possible scenarios were tested based on difference-in-difference statistical model. All calculations, including network simulation and hypothesis testing, were performed in the R software environment. The findings showed that Iran's joining G20, OECD, and APEC will significantly increase Iran's scientific collaboration with the members of each treaty. However, Iran's membership in the BRICS will not have a significant effect on its collaboration with the BRICS members. Also, Iran's joining each of these four treaties will significantly increase the total amount of Iran's international scientific collaboration. However, the increase in the G20 scenario is higher, and in the BRICS scenario is lower than other treaties. At the same time, Iran's membership in the G20 and BRICS will lead to a significant increase in Iran's dependence on collaboration with the USA. In return, Iran's membership in the OECD and APEC will play a significant role in reducing Iran's dependence on collaboration with the USA. Another advantage of Iran's membership in the OECD is strengthening its collaboration with two of the key players in Europe (France and Italy). One of the side benefits of Iran's joining APEC is the significant increase in its collaboration with the key player in East Asia (China). The results indicated that Iran's joining OECD and APEC will help to increase Iran's visibility in the international scientific collaboration network and reduce Iran's dependence on collaboration with the USA.

The four main objectives of the study are: 1- Identifying the countries’ position in the world’s scientific system; 2- Identifying the necessary conditions for the peripheral position; 3- Identifying the causal paths leading to the peripheral position; 4- Description of ways to improve the peripheral position. The research was based on network analysis and fuzzy-sets qualitative comparative analysis. The data were secondary and were collected based on the theoretical model of research from international databases and different data sets for the period 2002-2017. The number of country-year observations was 2644. The countries’ position analysis in the world’s scientific system indicated that in 2002, nearly 82% of countries were in the peripheral position, of which only 7% were promoted to the semi-peripheral position during the studied period. The analysis of the necessary conditions showed that low exported value and weak exchange of international students are necessary to be placed in a peripheral position, but none of them alone lead to a peripheral position. Other conditions were liberal democracy, government effectiveness, human development, social similarity, English language, and dependence on colonial relations. The sufficient analysis indicated that the combination of low exported value and weak exchange of international students leads to a peripheral position in the world’s scientific system. Drawing the phase space of the upgraded countries showed that Singapore's position improved through increasing exported value. However, countries such as Iran, South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Colombia have achieved the same outcome through increasing international student exchange. Romania is the only country whose position improvement was due to an increase in both conditions. The change of peripheral position to semi-peripheral often coincides with a qualitative change in the social system, which is the product of changing elements of the economic or social subsystems or both.

Countries are adjacent or opposite in physical, political, economic, social, cultural, and scientific dimensions. Proximity or distance among countries in terms of the above dimensions can cause or prevent strong inter-country scientific collaboration. The objectives of this research are primarily to identify the dimensions that better explain the intensity of international scientific collaboration, and secondly, to investigate the fluctuations in the intensity of the influence of each dimension over time. To achieve the above-mentioned aims, and based on the integration of proximity literature with the CAGE distance framework, the determining factors of international scientific collaboration were extracted. The population of the research consisted of 167 independent countries in the period of 2002-2017. In this research, the network of co-author relations between countries is considered as an indicator of international scientific collaboration, whose data was collected from the Web of Science database. Also, data on proximity dimensions were collected from various databases (United Nations, International Trade Center, etc.). This research has an explanatory nature and is based on the analysis of secondary data with a quantitative approach (a gravity model). Model effects were estimated using R package fixest. The application of this model showed that the intensity of international scientific collaboration has a positive relationship with proximity and a negative relationship with the distance between countries in different dimensions. The findings obtained from the comparison of the explanatory power of the proximity dimensions indicated the high explanatory power of social proximity. Nevertheless, the findings of the model improvement showed that the simultaneous presence of the political, economic, and social dimensions also have an explanatory power close to that of the social proximity. Examining the fluctuations in the influence of proximity dimensions over time showed a significant increase in the influence of proximity in economic, social, and scientific dimensions, a common language in the cultural dimension, intra-regional collaboration, and collaboration between neighboring countries in the physical dimension. Meanwhile, the influence of geographical distance in the physical dimension, colonial relations in the political dimension, and religious and ethnic commonalities in the cultural dimension have decreased significantly. It is only in the political dimension that the effect of most factors is partial (such as the difference in terms of the degree of realization of the liberal democratic government or the efficiency of the government, and the imposition of sanctions against the other party) and sometimes is fixed (such as common membership in international agreements).

Two aims of the present study are: First, identifying the most widely used indicators that have been used so far to measure the factors affecting scientific collaboration between countries; and the second, determining the most important indicators in terms of influencing international scientific collaboration.

Due to the accumulation of experimental research in the field of determining factors of international scientific collaboration, which include a multitude of predictive variables and are sometimes accompanied by contradictory results, an evidence-based systematic review was used. According to the PRISMA protocol and without considering the time limit, 20 studies were selected to review the findings. Studies were selected that were based on the level of macro analysis and statistical model. To achieve the first aim, the frequency of use of indicators in various studies was investigated, and to achieve the second aim, indicators with a dominant effect were identified based on the vote counting technique. Due to the heterogeneity of the selected studies (the difference in the test statistic used and the way predictor and control variables are measured), this technique was used.

The most widely used indicators used by researchers are the geographical distance between the capitals of countries (in the physical dimension), common membership in intergovernmental organizations (in the political dimension), economic development, and economic size (in the economic dimension), social similarity (in the social dimension), the common official language (in the cultural dimension), and the number of articles (in the scientific and technological dimension). The results indicate that there is a lot of overlap between widely used indicators and indicators with a dominant effect. All widely used indicators also have a dominant effect. However, some indicators are classified in the group of indicators with a dominant effect despite having a lower degree of application. These indicators include the volume of trade relations (in the economic dimension), colonial relations (in the cultural dimension), specialization distance, and international student exchange (in the scientific and technological dimension). These indicators, based on the consensus of most of the evidence about their type of effect (positive or negative), are among the most important indicators affecting scientific collaboration between countries.

According to the reviewed studies, the identified factors have an undeniable effect on scientific collaboration between countries. As a result, they should not be neglected in the design of national research systems. In addition, this research by enumerating the existing research gaps in this field states that achieving a more comprehensive understanding of the factors requires interdisciplinary studies by researchers in the fields of Knowledge and Information Science, Sociology, and Political Science. Finally, two suggestions can be made. First, the establishment of research areas based on the conclusion of scientific and technological agreements in neighboring areas to solve common problems of member countries; and second, the wider intervention of international organizations in the global flows of student exchange through the creation of international competitions to allocate awards, scholarships, and research grants to countries that have ideas to solve major and common global problems.

The aim of this study is to investigate the experience of founders of knowledge-based companies and identify the intervening and contextual conditions that shape entrepreneurial awareness in them. 

The research method used in this study is theoretical and the data analysis was conducted in a qualitative way with open, central, and selective coding. The statistical population included all 53 knowledge-based companies located in Mashhad, and 20 entrepreneurs who were managers or officials of the knowledge-based companies were interviewed in-depth. The sample size was determined by theoretical saturation, and the data was coded based on research objectives using MAXQDA software. Axis categories were identified based on definitions of intervention and contextual conditions in fostering entrepreneurial awareness. 

The study found that various intervening and contextual conditions play a role in nurturing entrepreneurial awareness. The intervening conditions include emotional and constructive action in the family, relational social capital, positive self-concept, ability to social influence, and constructive character. The contextual conditions include the field of education, strong and weak ties, fluid modernity, and democratic family. 

Entrepreneurial awareness has a direct impact on identifying entrepreneurial opportunities, and identifying and nurturing the intervening and contextual conditions in fostering entrepreneurial awareness can facilitate the development of entrepreneurship. The study provides insights into the factors that shape entrepreneurial awareness in the context of knowledge-based companies, which can inform policies and practices aimed at fostering entrepreneurship in this sector.

Adopting a comparative-historical approach, this study examines the impact of Waqf institution on development in Mashhad and the factors that weaken or strengthen this impact in the three historical periods of Timurid, Safavid and Pahlavi. In the theoretical framework, while referring to the theories of functionalism and structuralism, by using the new institutionalist in economic sociology approach, a three-level causal model is presented to examine the factors that weaken or strengthen the impact of waqf institution on development. This model was tested by using narrative analysis, Mills Methods of agreement and dispute at two levels within the case and between the cases. The results indicate that strengthening or weakening the impact of waqf institution on development in Mashhad in the studied periods depend on the institutional environment of waqf, the performance of endowment trustees and endowment trustee organizations in maintaining and developing endowments and intentions and motivations of waqifs. In the Timurid and Safavid periods, due to the existence of an institutional environment supporting waqf, the effective performance of waqf trustees and organizations and strengthening the spiritual motivations of waqifs and further influencing their intentions, the impact of waqf institution on development of Mashhad has also been strengthened, whereas, in the Pahlavi period, due to the lack of an institutional environment supporting the endowment, malfunction of endowment trustees and endowment trustee organizations and weakening the spiritual motivations of the waqifs and reducing the effectiveness of their intentions, this effect has been weakened.

The purpose of this research work was to investigate the effect of gender justice on the social performance of the Ministries of Sport and Youth with the mediating role of organizational well-being.

This research work was applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-correlation in terms of method, and was conducted in the form of a survey. The statistical population of this research work was 890 staff members of the Ministry of Sport and Youth, and 278 questionnaires were collected and analyzed. The measurement tools of this research work included a researcher-made questionnaire for gender justice, organizational well-being (Waterman, 2008) and social performance of the organization (Hadian Nesab, 2015). For the validity of the questionnaires, the opinions of 10 sports management professors were used, and Cronbach's alpha method was used to calculate the reliability. For data analysis, structural equation modeling method was used in two parts: measurement model and structural part.

The results obtained showed that the perception of gender justice had a positive and meaningful effect on the social performance of the Ministry of Sport and Youth. On the other hand, organizational well-being had a positive and significant effect on the social performance of the Ministry of Sport and Youth. Also the effect of the perception of gender justice on the social performance of the Ministry of Sport and Youth with the mediating role of organizational well-being was positive and significant.

The expansion of gender justice by the managers of the Ministry of Sport and Youth will be accompanied by the improvement of social performance, and if the development of organizational well-being is provided, we will generally see the improvement of the performance of the Ministry of Sport and Youth.

In times of economic crisis and corona, households need strategies to adapt themselves to and overcome this situation. This study tried to examine these strategies. It was conducted within the framework of an interpretive and constructivist paradigm with a qualitative approach, content analysis technique, and semi-structured questionnaire tool. The research sample consisted of people over 18 who were selected using purposive sampling. The results showed that citizens' exposure strategies fall into three categories. Some actions are resistant and only seek to reduce the effects of crises on the household economy and try to survive. Some actions were also restorative. In this way, households sought to maintain their well-being before crises. Some other actions were also included in the creative strategy area. In this strategy, people used economic chaos to produce unproductive actions to increase their share of the economy. In this strategy, the public interest is ignored and only personal interest is considered. But, some productive creative actions have been introduced as potential creative ones, which have faced many obstacles to their implementation. Moreover, the results of the study also showed the belief of citizens in the impact of the environment and the context of society on the way of economic strategies of the people. Thus, the lack of political maturity is the cause of such consequences as a fragile economy, a low-income society, and an anti-rational culture; Conditions that affect the type of economic strategies and actions of the household.

Demographic structure around cities and densely populated areas, Demands a fundamental and new form to improve urban life; Knowledge of this form of needs in the form of development from the perspective of Suburban dwellers leads to proper planning and policy in urban and suburban areas. In order to understand the meaning of development and lived experience of people in suburban areas. Phenomenological method was used to conduct in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 43 suburban dwellers.Findings show that suburban dwellers understand the meaning of development in the suburbs as developoriented, ethics-oriented, transparent-oriented, quality-oriented and psycho-oriented. From the point of view of urban residents, paying attention to urban areas through the mentioned components will cause the income margin of these areas. Also, the rotation of intermediate components through a theoretical expansion of the structure of the formation of a powerful urban character was identified and adjusted based on this research. According to the research findings, it is recommended; Components of benefiting the majority of the society, learning knowledge, raising the level of information of the people and increasing social responsibility based on a participatory approach increasing the balance of suburban settlements should be on the agenda. approach increasing the balance of suburban settlements should be on the agenda.

The purpose of this research work is to analyze the semiotics of popular Iranian users' pages on Instagram, as a network with more than one billion active users per month, covering the consumption showcasing topics. A large number of users spend most of their time on Instagram, browsing the pages of influencers and therefore, the answer to the question of what can be obtained by semiotically examining their pages, will help to find out the prevailing taste of Instagram users. In this study, Kress and Van Lyon's semiotics method was used to analyze the images and the focus of this research was on the images that Instagram has made them viral. Based on this criteria, 900 images from pages with a large audience, with different identity representation, were analyzed from the targeted sampling and with theoretical saturation criteria. The findings of this research show that two main types can be identified in this representation of identity. In both types, there are characteristics of consumerism. These two types can be divided into direct consumerist and thoughtful consumerist identity.

Finding and maintaining a job position is influenced by several factors, including gender. Women, especially women who are heads of households, face many concerns in finding and maintaining a job position. This study has focused on participants who are female heads of households and seek help from the Relief Committee and tries to provide a perceptual image of the job search process and the lived experience of this group of women by using the grounded theory method. Findings show that the job opportunities of the women studied in most cases are so eroding and shaky that they can be considered less illuminating for the future of the client. In these women's lives, the challenges that arise in this process outweigh the potential strengths. They suffer from physical and mental exhaustion due to occupational activity beyond the typical retirement ages, and their physical condition will be threatened in the future. In addition, these women face challenges in the workplace that are related to their gender, which makes the workplace unsafe for them. This insecurity makes them reluctant to accept a job position. As a result, the emphasis on sustainable training is one of the effective strategies to improve their situation.

Dysfunction of socialization and Performance impairment of socialization factors in the economic field, indicate the existence of a process of inefficient socialization in society. The purpose of this study is to understand the content of Socialization of financing responsibility of youth, which includes causes and consequences. The young participants are 20 to 40 years old, based on purposeful and theoretical sampling with 24 individual interviews was conducted. According to the coding processes, the central category of "continuity of culture multiplicity" was obtained. The central category in this study showed that the culture of financing responsibility in society is not a coherent and integrated culture and different values have been transmitted to the younger generation, one of which is the valuable of education and the other, is the valuable of financing responsibility. Due to the valuable of education for the person and his family, the financing responsibility is not trained and he is temporarily out of the world of work and after graduation it is possible that he will not be able to find a job. vis-a-vis, with valuable of financing responsibility and employment, the person from the era who could, has tried in this field and he was responsible of financing himself. Considering the conversion of education as a value and lack of fostering financing responsibility in the young generation, it can be said that socialization has been poor in terms of performance and has failed to conformity with the dominant culture of society i.e employment.

After the 2008 crisis, the concept of resilience was introduced as one of the most important key factors in reducing vulnerability to crises. After this period, studies were more intensively done around this concept, to which special attention was paid in social sciences and sociology. Yet, studying the concept of resilience and paying attention to it in different dimensions is more important to countries with a high risk. One of the most risky countries with both natural and unnatural causes is Iran, a country that frequently faces various economic shocks and crises in terms of both its geographical location and type of connection to the outside world. Each type of crisis can threaten livelihoods of families and reduce welfare in the society. Lack of attention to the concept of resilience has caused the Iranian society to undergo a crisis period in recent years. It no longer has its normal function. In such an event, people's participations in the overcoming process of crisis have decreased and the negative effects of risks have increased. Due to the high impact of resilience on enhancing social resistance and the declining trend of social harms, as well as the need for the further study of the Iranian society in this area, the present research focused on the concept of resilience despite providing its accurate description. Also, it tried to identify the extent of its impact on the economic actions of households in adverse economic conditions with regard to its current situation in various dimensions.  

The current investigation was of a survey type, besides being of an applied type due to the possibility of using its results by the authorities. The statistical population of this study included all the household heads in Mashhad City in 2022. According to the statistical yearbook of 2016, this city had a population of 3001184 people and consisted of 817250 families. It should be noted that the sample individuals had the necessary dispersion to obtain valid and generalizable information and data. In other words, different social classes were sufficiently present in the sample. Using Cochran's formula, the sample size was calculated to include 399 people, which increased to 450 people so as to better allocate the sample to the subgroups of the statistical population and prevent error reduction. Finally, by removing the unusable items, the sample size was determined to consist of 427 people. Also, a proportionally allocated stratified sampling method was applied. In this way, an attempt was made to equally examine the different social classes of the households. 

In summary, it should be noted that the subjects’ economic actions were analyzed in the 3 areas of resistance, recovery, and creative economic actions, the application of each of which was affected by different variables. The important point to be mentioned in this section was the household heads’ tendencies to use resistance and then recovery actions. In other words, in the current situation, the heads of the households first tried to use resistance economic actions to earn a living and lead their daily lives. The majority of people sought to provide subsistence for themselves and their families on a daily basis and was less inclined to take long-term economic actions. This was understandable in our society, where most people had an income of less than 5 million tomans. By increasing the cost of living in the society, only the extended use of resistance actions could sustain household economy. The results also showed that the households tended to use economic recovery actions. This tendency, however, was more prevalent in the middle-class households. In other words, the households that were relatively better off financially tried to return to their pre-crisis conditions (recent economic turmoil and Corona epidemic) by using actions based on ​recovery strategies. Regarding creative actions, the results revealed that the use of these actions was increasing with the increase of the households’ social class.Creative economic activities had the highest average level in the upper classes and the lowest average level in the lower classes. This result is in line with those obtained by Royla et al. (2017). The researchers also found that by changing the social classes of the households and individuals, their types of action and economic action strategies altered. Finally, according to the results of the present study, it should be noted that paying attention to the concept of resilience can be very effective in overcoming the difficult and critical situations in societies. In addition to reducing the destructive effects of various economic shocks, resilience of any societies and their individuals provides the conditions for their growth and progress.

Nowadays, experts challenge the negative attitude toward immigration and take a more positive stance towards it. In their opinion, migration can bring benefits to both countries of origin and destination. One of the advantages mentioned is their economic interactions with the country of origin, leading to economic and cultural development in the country of origin. Regarding the lack of comprehensive research in this field, the present study aims at identifying the types of economic interactions of immigrants residing in Germany with Iran and their reasons for it.

The statistical population of the present study includes all legal immigrants aged above 18 residing in Germany with more than 2 years of residence in this country. Since there was no prior framework for investigating this issue, a qualitative method and a semi-structured interview were used. Based on theoretical sampling, 30 immigrants were interviewed.

The findings of the present study indicate that transferring goods and funds from Germany falls into five main categories, namely, sending gifts, investments, charitable actions, sending rare goods and purchasing incorporated services,

This five main categories are subject to cultural integration, economic integration, attitude to Iran and Germany and the number of years Immigrants reside in Germany.

Given the large number of tourists and pilgrims having different accommodation interests, different formal and informal accommodation centers have been established in Mashhad in the last decade. The tourists who use the accommodation facilities have the greatest influence on the economy of destinations. The cost of accommodation is mainly the first concern among the traveling expenses of tourists in Mashhad. This shows the significance of economic issues of tourism. Using diagnostic analysis technique, this study tried to identify the differentiating patterns of tourists regarding accommodation in Mashhad. This survey used a research-made questionnaire to collect data. The population was tourists and native pilgrims of Mashhad in early 2019. Results showed that choosing the place of accommodation for tourists in Mashhad is non-institutional (68%) and based on collective decisions (88%). Exploring differentiating factors of choosing a place of accommodation showed that tourists’ social status plays an important role in choosing a place of accommodation though it is not the only determining factor. In addition to the issues, the tourists’ values regarding accommodation and their preference system regarding travel, and travel motivations influence tourists’ choosing accommodation in Mashhad. The results showed that choosing the accommodation has not only an economic implication but implies a social meaning as well. Accommodation is influenced by economic status of tourists and is affected by their social status and life styles. Most of tourists of Mashhad are of the lower middle class. Therefore, the tourism managers and accommodation planners of Mashhad should mainly focus on the pragmatic than the symbolic dimension of tourism when deciding on the development of accommodation centers.

Poverty is a global and multidimensional issue that all societies may experience and in different ways. Poverty can be defined as the inability to meet basic needs, and it is obvious that the inability to meet basic needs, in various respects, creates severe crises at the individual and social levels. Given the widespread dimensions of poverty, efforts to reduce it through the implementation of poverty alleviation initiatives are doubly important and seem necessary. The main purpose of this study was to identify various poverty alleviation policies and initiatives and the factors that monitor their success and failure in the peer-reviewed journal papers in Persian published between 2006 and 2020. This study uses a systematic review approach to examine papers related to poverty alleviation in the last fifteen years. After searching in databases such as: Noormags, Ensani.ir, Magiran, and Sid.ir using keywords related to poverty and poverty alleviation, and deleting irrelevant papers, 69 articles were obtained. The results of reading and analyzing the papers show that poverty is mainly measured by instruments such as income. This confirms that the orientation towards poverty is mainly dominated by the economic view and other dimensions of poverty, especially the social dimension, have been neglected to huge extent. Among the implemented or proposed initiatives, the policy of job creation and development of income-generating home-based activities has been considered as one of the most effective and sustainable programs, which is also overshadowed by the lack of allocation of facilities and financial resources.

The scope and complexity of activities in food supply chains has exposed this networks to more negative risks, so that decision makers and business actors in this chains are forced to identify and evaluate the risks correctly and also adopting the necessary policies to reduce the likelihood of risks occurrence and severity consequences. The purpose of this study is to investigate and measure the supply chain performance in real conditions under different risks and to analyze it with using agent-based simulation. For this purpose, milk supply chain was studied in Zahedan city during 2018 and 2019 period. In this study, the theoretical sampling method of Strauss and Corbin was used. A regular series of purposefully in-depth and semi-structured interviews was conducted with a group of 24 experts and specialists related to the chain to extract qualitative data. Identified 61 risks in the chain in the field research were initially evaluated using the Failure Mode, Effects and Criticality Analysis, then, the active chains in the region was simulated with the agent-based modeling approach and using Net Logo software, and 27 risk reduction scenarios were examined to evaluate the changes in the performance indicators of the chain. Regarding the validation of the results of simulation tests, paired (t) test was performed and also the results of 30 independent replications of the model was compared with each other. Among the identified various risks in the chain, price fluctuations of agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers, labor, etc.), milk price fluctuations and lack of information had the most negative impact on chain performance and as a result of appropriate measures such as the use of marketing and futures contracts and other local tools that reduce the level of risk from high to medium level in the chain, some other performance indicators of the chain can be improved while increasing the overall revenue of the chain.

Although the price is a determinant element of the exchange market and is primarily considered as an economic variable, the basic idea of the present paper is that in the carpet bazar in Iran it is not merely a result of supply and demand, but also it is influenced by the structure of relationships among the actors. in other words, types of social embeddedness are significant in this regards and prices in this market are shaped by the structure of social relations between buyers and the sellers.With the aim of identifying the social mechanisms of pricing using a qualitative approach and an ethnomethodology method, we studied 35 participants from carpet markets in Mashhad, Tehran, Qom and Isfahan cities. They were from different parts of the bazar inclusing merchants, wholesalers, retailers, commissioners, and intermediaries.The analysis of the interviews showed that the formation of prices in the carpet bazar is influenced by the exposure of sellers to strangers and acquaintances, and leads to the emergence of two main types of arm’s-length price and embedded price. In arm’s-length prices, a seller deals with strangers, which includes three types of cash, long-term and profitable, and in the embedded price of which the transactions with acquaintances are carried out, three types of prices include the obligatory, painful price and mediatory are identifiable. The results clearly show that prices in the carpet market are not based solely on the economic calculations of the actors, but these prices are embedded in social structures, and many social mechanisms are involving in the process of pricing carpets.The results clearly show that prices in the carpet market are not based solely on the economic calculations of the actors, but these prices are embedded in social structures, and many social mechanisms are involving in the process of pricing carpets.

In order to achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to actively manage the increasing consumption of water resources. In this regard, from the economic point of view, possible policies for water crisis management are presented in the form of increasing the supply and controlling the demand. For Iran, policy-makers have focused more on the supply side and the production of water and less on the demand management. This study attempts to design a model for the behavioral characteristics of residential water consumers in terms of their social interactions (i.e., the effect of social networks on the consumption behavior) and to simulate the actual water demand in Shiraz City.

Description of the base model: Two types of consumption behaviors, cooperative (C) or non-cooperative (NC), have been considered for residential water consumers. Using the individual's social environment, economic and climatic variables (such as temperature) and the diffusion process model, the tendency to one of these two behaviors is determined. There is an optimal social consumption for each household according to its social environment. Depending on the type of the behavior and the optimal consumption, the household adjusts its demand in the next period. To determine the agent’s water consumption behavior according to the corresponding social network, the following utility functions are formulated: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) These equations illustrate the utility of maintaining or changing household’s behavior. In these equations, a, b, are the parameters of the model. and are the proportion of neighbors of agent i with the behavior of C and NC, respectively, indicating the effect of a neighbors’ behavior on the behavior of an agent. The first right-hand part of the above equations represents the social pressure. The modification factor ( ) is the effect of the other factors on the household’s choice of behavior and measures the pressure to have behavior C. Optimal water consumption affected by social network: When there are V neighbors, the optimal consumption is obtained by solving the following minimization problem: (6) : Neighbor’s water consumption per capita : Household’s income : Neighbor’s income : Weight coefficient. Household’s water consumption adjustment: The model assumes that agents compensate for a percentage of the gap between their consumption and their optimal water consumption in each period, according to the utility that they obtain from their social network. This study is based on the data from 1000 household water users in the residential areas of Shiraz. In each residential cell of 300 × 300 square meters in the city, a household is selected to represent all the consumers in that geography. The present study minimizes the root mean square error (RMSE) between two sets of simulation data and real data, as a criterion for calibration. The data from 2005 to 2016 are used for the calibration process, and the data from 2017 to 2019 are used to validate the model.

Advertisement scenarios: Simulated advertising scenarios show 10, 20, and 30 percent of increase in advertising expenditures to encourage consumers to behave cooperatively. In 2032, the rate of reduction in per capita consumption, compared to 2019 and according to each scenario, will be 400, 950 and 1270 liters, respectively. The difference from the baseline scenario is more than these values. Also, the percentage of the people with cooperative behavior in the system will improve and reach 61, 73 and 81%, respectively. Scenarios of coercive behavior: The coercion scenario includes situations in which the government can, by legal or technical requirements, force households with per capita consumption more than 54 or 55 cubic meters, or only non-cooperative households with the consumption more than 54 or 55 cubic meters, to cooperate. In these scenarios, the order of the best results obtained to reduce consumption is as follows: A- Forcing consumers with non-cooperative behaviour and consumption above 54 cubic meters B- Forcing consumers with consumption above 54 cubic meters C- Forcing consumers with non-cooperative behaviour and consumption above 55 cubic meters D- Forcing consumers with consumption above 55 cubic meters

The results show that an increase in advertisement can improve the percentage of people with cooperative behavior to reduce consumption. Also, in the case of forcing consumers to adopt saving behavior, it is not necessary to force all the consumers (above a certain threshold of consumption), but it is better to force only those with non-cooperative behavior (and with consumption above a certain threshold). Following the behavior of a neighborhood network will distribute the cooperative behavior throughout the system and, therefore, cause proper saving in the total water consumption.

Growing population of the cities along with the desire for better welfare and health has increased the water demand. On the other hand, many cities are located in the arid and semi-arid regions with the low rainfall and renewable water resources. Therefore it causes the water crisis. Shiraz is one of the metropolises that is facing this problem and in the warm seasons of the year experiences the drop in water pressure and water outages. Increasing the water supply, regardless of demand management, will exacerbate the crisis. Water pricing has been also one of the most important concerns of policymakers in demand management. Given the importance of this issue and also the role of social interactions among the consumers and the neighboring community network on the water consumption behavior, the present study concentrates on providing an agent-based framework for examining the water demand and changes in consumption behavior (diffusion process). The model has been calibrated for domestic water consumption in Shiraz for the years 2005-2019. Price increase scenarios (for all or only part of the consumers) as well as granting free branches have been simulated for the years 2020-2032. The results show that small increases in water prices do not have significant effect on consumption and cooperative behavior trend. Also, giving free branching to some consumers will intensify non-cooperative behavior among other consumers and increase the consumption sharply.

Saffron is one of the most valuable and important agricultural products in Iran, and, it is necessary to consider the preferences of consumers to develop its market. Consumers have different needs and wants, and by benefit segmenting the saffron market, companies can understand customers' preferences in each segment of the market correctly. Therefore, in this study, using the crisp and fuzzy clustering algorithms, the saffron market was divided into homogenous segments, and then, using the results of the conjoint analysis; consumer preferences, attitudes, and demographic characteristics were examined in each saffron market segment. The necessary data were collected from 400 respondents using a stratified sampling method from 13 districts of Mashhad, Iran. The results of this study showed that the saffron market could be divided into six homogeneous segments, and the fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm performs better at finding clusters than k-means, k-medoids, fuzzy Gustafson-Kessel and fuzzy Gath-Geva methods. According to the study findings, in most market segments, the weight of saffron and the packaging type are the most important attributes influencing purchase decisions. Based on the study results, it is suggested that saffron companies consider consumer preferences in different market segments when supplying saffron products and formulating marketing strategies.