مقالات رزومه دکتر علی شکوری

In recent years, tourism has received remarkable attention at the level of neighborhoods and local communities. However, the share of modern neighborhoods using this capacity has not been great due to the traditionally common and often historical attractions. The purpose of this research is to investigate the possibility of implementing the idea of neighborhood tourism in a contemporary neighborhood, Ekbatan, without having the massive common elements of tourism.

Design/methodology/approach: 

This research is qualitative and data was collected through 19 in-depth interviews with residents, local informants, and field observations. The thematic method was used for data analysis to reach a neighborhood tourism model.

The findings show that Ekbatan Town has the capacity to host educated tourists with special interests in social, architectural, and urban planning, as well as those interested in social narratives and historical stories; therefore, it can be chosen as a modern destination for neighborhood tourism. This is subject to consideration of the role of key actors/agents.

The research results indicate that neighborhood tourism can be implemented if the residents’ views and especially their satisfaction are considered along with the neighborhood’s capacities.

Originality/value: 

This research has provided a model of making a modern tourist-friendly neighborhood, in which any successful neighborhood tourism policy and planning should be done within the framework of the neighborhood-participatory tourism approach as active hosts and with the least intervention of public and governmental institutions.

Social support is one of the studied variables in psychological and social sciences. Social support promotes the mental health and well-being of individuals by influencing various individual and social areas and helps the individual to face problems. This study was about identifying the themes affecting social support from the perspective of psychotherapists. This research is considered as a qualitative research in terms of applied purpose and method. The research sample consisted of 18 psychologists and therapists who were working in Qom province in 1400. Sampling was done purposefully. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather information. Data collection continued until theoretical saturation and no new findings were found. Thematic analysis method was used to analyze the interviews. The results showed that the factors at the therapist level (skill elements), at the school level (educational elements), at the community level (social-legal elements), at the family level (interactive elements) at the parents level ( Interpersonal-subsistence elements), at the individual level (personality elements) were the themes affecting social support from the perspective of psychotherapists. Social support from different dimensions and angles of human life can be analyzed and evaluated and the need to pay attention to this component from the perspective of experts and thinkers in various fields related to human beings is essential.

The purpose of this article is to study the impact of rural initiatives and developments on the occupational mobility of villagers in selected villages in the city of Marand. It was assumed that the rural reforms of the government after the revolution, which was primarily influenced by populist and egalitarian ideology, would have an effect on the social mobility of the target population.To investigate the impact of rural reform on rural mobility, the ex-post-facto comparative method was utilized in three groups of matched villages, based on development potentials and the number of rural programs or actions implemented, and random sampling was used to collect research data.Mobility is greater in villages with more development measures, indicating that rural initiatives have had effects. However, the nature of mobility revealed that both upward and downward moves occurred predominantly within short-range adjacent occupations; consequently, movements were uncommon at the top of the job structure continuum.In summary, the study concludes that although it is possible to conduct research on social mobility at the micro level and in a smaller community such as a village, the study of occupational mobility at the village level cannot be classified according to the standard that will be applied to the larger society. In addition, since rural society is experiencing the phenomenon of migration, the findings cannot necessarily reflect the job mobility of those who were promoted and took advantage of new opportunities, but did not reside in the village during the field research.

The existence of information and communication technology infrastructures such as landline phones, mobile phones, internet and broadband has made it possible for individuals, companies and governments to have better access to information, knowledge and technical skills on a large scale and at high speed. Hence, it is argued that the development of information and communication technology has fundamentally improved the efficiency of resource allocation, markedly reduced production costs, which are a constant concern of companies, and increasingly provided opportunities for investment in all economic sectors.ICT is one of the top four industries in the category of healthcare, agriculture and public services due to its wide applicability in various businesses. Especially, the speed of its penetration and widespread use by the mass of people, along with the aforementioned characteristics and potentials, have caused many governments to prepare extensive programs to improve the level of health, education and government services to citizens by creating funds for the development of the infrastructure of the information and communication technology industry. Allocation of financial resources and changes in existing laws and regulations are part of these programs.Due to the increasing importance of information and communication technology in global developments, researchers have paid great attention to the development effects at the national and business levels. There is a general consensus in the literature that technologies have a broad positive effect on economic and social development. This tendency has led to extensive measures to use information and communication technology for development goals such as economic growth, wealth production, wealth distribution, poverty reduction, expansion of educational opportunities, promotion of health services and access to public/government services.  Although related literature emphasizes its key role in accelerating economic growth, some researchers' arguments emphasize mixed results. While some writers point to a positive effect in developed countries, others do not consider this to be a general rule. They believe, especially in underdeveloped regions, the effects are negative.Based on these two different approaches, this article deals with the impact of information and communication technology on development. Based on a theoretical background, first of all, it is argued that communication is the basis of change and development of human society. Hence, the development of new technologies is associated with developmental consequences. Then, based on the empirical evidence regarding the penetration and expansion of digital technologies in the current world, it is suggested, these technologies cause extensive developmental consequences, mainly due to the higher intensity and speed of their impact. It is concluded that although information and communication technology apparently have positive development effects, their expansion, like other technologies, has social and environmental side effects that are rooted in the structure of the industry itself, the existing unequal social structure, and the facilitation of criminal and illicit activities.

Education and learning have a special place as an important part of the development and identity of each person. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to this category and the obstacles to its realization in different situations with a special educational structure such as villages. The purpose of this study was to qualitatively study teachers' perceptions of barriers to effective education in rural areas. The present study applied qualitative and content analysis and used Brown and Clark's (2006) theme analysis technique. The statistical population of teachers in Qom province was in 1400 who had a history of serving in the village. Using the purposive sampling method, 24 teachers were selected. The data collection tool was semi-structured interviews that included questions about barriers to effective education in rural areas. The results showed that the barriers to effective education in rural areas can be examined from the perspective of teachers in 6 areas: 1) infrastructure problems and barriers 2) family barriers 3) intra-personal barriers 4) teacher barriers 5) situational barriers 6) economic barriers. Teachers have also come up with solutions to these problems, which are referred to as preventative components of problems and remedial factors. It can be concluded that the barriers to effective education in rural areas can be discussed and planned from the perspective of teachers from the various angles mentioned in the results. From this point of view, more attention to the issue of education and learning in rural areas is very important.

Rural development, both in terms of approach and policy implementation, has been one of the development concerns of developing countries. In terms of approach, the question has always been whether rural development should follow the techno-bureaucratic approach (from above) or the participatory approach (from below). Which approaches have been sound and valid has always been overshadowed by intellectual-ideological debates. Because the revolution paved the way for the following of alternative approaches to development beyond conventional pre-revolutionary approaches, which relied on less successful experiences with top-down approaches, and this was better reflected in the establishment and evolution of Jihad-e Sazandeghi. Therefore, this article studies the experience of rural development with regard to the ups and downs of the Jihad. Having Explained the Jihad's formation, the article concludes that, first; the top-down approach has gradually given way to the down-top approach, which has been at odds with its existential philosophy. Second, inspired by Michels's theory of bureaucratization, it argues that the Jihad's development goal has gradually been overshadowed by non-developmental functions such as maintaining organization and governing relations. Third, inspired by Ferguson's theory of being consequential of any action or development plan, it argues that the extensive measures of the Jihad in implementing rural projects, especially infrastructure, have had various impacts such as reducing urban and rural gaps and integrating rural communities in society. Therefor these developmental initiatives have provided more macro and qualitative effects that should be regarded as long lasting.

This paper examines the effects of Covid 19 on inequalities based on various available data and available studies and analyses. Based on a general and theoretical rule as well as empirical contexts, it assumes that inequality and Covid 19 have intensifying effects on each other. Because events, whether negative-incidental such as pervasive diseases or positive-intentional type such as the implementation of policies and programs, in unequal structures in terms of severity and extent of victims and beneficiaries have disparate effects and generally deepen existing inequalities. Therefore, this study examines the effects of Covid 19 in interacting with important dimensions such as employment and income and previous contexts such as the economic and social base of individuals within and between countries. At the same time, in the age of cyberspace, the intensification of other forms of inequality has taken place mainly through the digital divide. Finally, it proposes policy recommendations to improve the situation, given the prevalence of Covid 19 and its long-term effects.

In Iran, after the Islamic Revolution, the discourse of development was aligned with the discourse of the revolution. The promises of the revolution to eliminate deprivation and to pay attention to the oppressed had a special focus on the rural areas, and the schools of development emerged with the same promise. During this period, governments were primarily responsible for designing and implementing rural development programs. This article tries to analyze the discourse of each government and the relationship it has with the rural element. In this research, the theoretical perspective of the critical theory in general and revisionist approaches in development, especially the post-development theory, have been used. The purpose of this article is to describe the dominant discourses in the fifth to tenth governments and the position of the rural element in the territory of each discourse. The study also seeks to answer these questions: What are the differences and commonalities in the discourses of post-revolutionary governments? How is the construction of development in post-revolutionary governments in the field of rural development? What effect did the discourses of post-revolutionary governments have on the models chosen for rural development?  

Methodologically, this research is based on the principles of Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory and the operational stages of Post-foundational Discourse Analysis (PDA). According to this approach, in this study, the discourse of rural development has been theoretically conceptualized in three steps: (1) Co-construction (2) Reconstruction (3) Collocation. The president is intended to represent the discourse of that government. The texts used in this research are purposefully-selected lectures and interviews of three presidents. In the selection, texts have been considered that include three directions: 1) texts that show the main orientations and policies of each president, 2) texts that mention development and planning in general, and 3) texts in which rural development is specifically addressed. Three speeches were selected from each president, and after studying all the speeches and interviews of the presidents related to these three axes, a text was selected from each axis that is closest to the objectives of this research. Then, the results of the analysis in the texts of the first to fifth five-year development plans prepared by these governments have been validated and reviewed in the sections related to the rural area. 

The results of this analysis show that no discourse has been able to absorb the rural element without any defects. In any discourse, the existence of the limiting and influential factors has seriously damaged the formation of a complete and strong relationship between the rural element and the central nodal point. In the analysis of the Hashemi government's discourse in the rural area, the central role of improving physical and external conditions can be recognized, and this shows that the rural area is within the discourse of the government. But this relationship cannot be considered complete without any flaws. In this area, the discourse has acted contrary to its principles. Perceptions of rural backwardness, land ownership, and the inability of private capitalism to play a role in this area are elements that have hampered the full and comprehensive formation of this inter-discourse relationship. Also, the need for infrastructure work and the existence of a strong institution such as Jihad-Sazandegi encourages the government to play a direct role in this area, a role that has been avoided in other areas. For this reason, the formed relationship can be considered as distorted and heterogeneous. The rural sphere in the discourse of Khatami's government is in the realm of discourse and cannot be assumed outside it. Still, at the same time, two categories of elements in this regard are effective within the discourse: elements that contribute to the discourse close to the rural sphere, and elements that weaken this relationship and remove it from the discourse. This causes the discourse not to be able to function effectively in this area in a coordinated manner with other areas. The rural area in the discourse of the Khatami government has not been able to meet the conditions for the adoption of discourse policies fully. It indicates the loss of opportunities in which the rural area could have benefited from macro-policies, but these communication problems have made this benefit incomplete. However, the rural area has a better and more effective relationship with the realm of discourse in the Khatami period than the Hashemi period. In the rural area, the discourse of Ahmadinejad's government is the most relevant to all the discourses of previous governments. The central nodal point of this discourse focuses directly on the rural area. Improving the distribution of wealth and facilities has directly made the rural area one of its main goals. In this way, the rural sphere is completely and perfectly in the realm of discourse, and the connection that the elements of discourse, especially its central nodal point, make with this sphere as a complete connection. Therefore, the Ahmadinejad government's discourse in attracting the rural sphere in its discourse is the most successful president among its predecessors, and there is a strong and two-way connection between the rural sphere and the central nodal point of the Ahmadinejad government's discourse. But one of the weaknesses of the discourse of Ahmadinejad's government is that it has not been able to consider both internal and external dimensions in the rural area. It can be said that problems arising from development programs do not necessarily mean that they are implemented incorrectly but can be due to the foundations of the development discourse itself. Accordingly, in the present study, the authors have considered the foundations that go beyond the method of implementation or apparent approaches. Due to these problems, the discourses cannot deal comprehensively with the issues of rural communities, and their effectiveness should be questioned. On the other hand, the results of this analysis show that the development discourse, especially in development planning, cannot be neutral. Due to its discursive nature, development cannot move towards the goals set in the programs without any interference. Goals that are themselves influenced by the development discourse. We are now faced with a phenomenon that is at the forefront of discourse at all stages, including understanding the world around us, evaluating current conditions, setting goals and patterns, and determining ways to achieve these goals. As a result, policymakers who determine the direction of development use it to dominate their discourse.

Unemployment of university graduates and their employment in jobs unrelated to their academic field of study is one of the growing problems facing the society. This incompatibility has many destructive consequences, one of the most important of which is the psycho-social effects that happens as an effect of not realizing transcendent/complicated human abilities. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the attitudinal and emotional reactions of employees unrelated to their academic educational background. These reactions include the three components of job satisfaction, job stress and alienation from work. Based on the existing theoretical literature, it is assumed that jobs that are less appropriate to the academic background of employees are at an undesirable level. Since people with different characteristics are employed in organizations, it is also assumed that this relationship is affected by three categories of factors, including the respondents' socio-economic background, internal and external organizational elements. The data was collected from a total of 400 users of the Telegram social network using the online survey method. Overall, the findings indicated that all three groups of the above factors have a significant relationship with adverse attitudinal and emotional reactions. Comparison between these factors showed that socio-economic and extra-organizational variables have a stronger relationship with employees' reactions compared to intra-organizational variables.

This article attempts to interpret the formation of discourse of development in Iran’s rural development policies by analyzing the discourse of Hashemi and Ahmadinejad governments in the areas of development in general and rural development in particular. The research method used in this article is based on the principles of Laclau and Mouffe's Discourse Theory and the proposed method of Post-foundation discourse analysis (PDA). The data used in this article was collected from interviews, lectures, and statements of presidents and clauses and notes related to rural areas in the context of the First, Second, and Fifth Five-Year Development Plans by purposive sampling. The results showed that the rural areas had been incorporated into the discourse of Hashemi’s government domain. But the set of factors led to the incomplete relationship between the rural sphere and the discourse of government causing many inconsistencies in this area. On the other hand, discourse of Ahmadinejad government has a stronger and more discursive relationship with the rural issues. In other words, the discourse of Ahmadinejad's government to disrupt the discourse of Hashemi government focusing on physical and external conditions, seeks to improve these conditions. However, as in the discourse of Hashemi’s government, the discourse of Ahmadinejad's government ultimately did not pay much attention to the cultural and social spheres of development, emphasizing instead the improved distribution of physical facilities.

The creation of free trade zones in the specific regions of the country is one of the plans and initiatives that are often undertaken by the states to develop the region and improve its people social welfare. In Iran, in recent decades, these projects have been implemented in different regions of the country, which Aras Free Zone is one of these projects. Although significant controversies have been made on the impacts of these areas, which have often been referred to ineffectively, less research has been done, especially on the area under study regarding welfare indicators. Hence, this research inspired by Ferguson's notion that developmental plans would unintentionally lead to changes that were neither quite positive nor negative, and using the comparative method examines the outcomes of the Aras Free Zone on indicators Social welfare in this region. The findings show that although the Aras Free Zone, like other free zones of Iran, has not achieved its goals in general, its effects in various welfare indicators have not been the same. For example, in such indicators as health care, education, employment status has had some positive effects. Nevertheless, in other indicators such as social security and the need for supportive organizations and the economic situation (economic welfare), it has almost neutral effects. Simultaneously, in some indicators, such as housing conditions and Housing costs have had very negative effects. Similarly, it often leads to the formation of reverse immigration and the rise of strangers in the Aras commercial-industrial free zone.

Climate and environmental factors are considered as the most important challenges in contemporary age. Current research shows that climate and environmental changes were not very important in the past, but today due to the expansion of their obvious outcomes (such as the drying of lakes, wetlands, rivers, etc.) are regarded as one of the important variables. They affect various aspects of rural life in general and different activities of agricultural sector in particular. The effect of these changes on Iran is more intense, beacuse country has a large disparity of rural communities, dry and semi-arid geographic location with an evaporation more than 3 times the global average, about 70% of its rainfall -equal to 293 billion cubic meters – which become out of reach through evaporation along with the disparity of time and place of precipitation. Hence, it is predicted that along with the warming and desertification of the region (Middle East), climate change will increase the pressure on Iran's water resources. Therefore, the awareness of such a situation for the whole society, especially for rural communities and the agricultural sector, which is naturally the largest user of water resources in the country, is highly significant. consequently needs an adoption of strategic insights and new strategies to prevent the past and current strategic neglect regarding water resources at the national level and regional or local level, such as rural communities. The present study is conducted using combined survey method and technique in a variety of ways such as library studies, documentary surveys of state agencies, and interview with experts, Delphi technique and a researcher-made questionnaire is utilized to analyze the information. For this purpose, software as Excel, SPSS and Smart PLS software are used. The statistical population of the research includes senior managers and senior experts in executive agencies, professors in the field of related disciplines, including professors of irrigation and agricultural schools and research institutes, as well as a number of expert farmers throughout the country. Using Cochran's formula and applying correction coefficient and taking into account the margin of error, the estimated error revealed 0.08, and the level of significance appeared α = 5%. A sample size of 180 respondents is chosen through purposeful method for data collection. In order to determine the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, content analysis method with a comprehensive general tool approach (according to the views of 40 experts) and the Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.94 based on the results of a sample of 20 experts is used respectively. Result and discussion: The results of the research indicate that, from the experts' point of view, the impact of climate indicators and environmental factors on promoting water productivity in rural communities is not alike. Considering the criterion of significance coefficients z, it is found that all coefficients are higher than the criterion 1.96 and therefore, all the coefficients are significant at the 95% confidence level. Given that all obtained coefficients are greater than 0.4, thus internal consistency is confirmed. By looking at the coefficients, among the 4 components identified, the component "quality of climatic and environmental factors" with the highest coefficient of 0.958 and the component "production pattern with climatic characteristics" with a coefficient of 0.883 have the least correlation with "climate and Environmental" respectively. Meanwhile, the index "Agricultural production amount (kg) to the current volume of flood in the country (cubic meter)" with the highest coefficient of 0.896 and the index "percentage of cultivar observation" with a coefficient of 0.683 have the least relation with the relevant component. Reliability and validity indices confirms internal consistency and validity of the model: Cronbach's alpha is higher than 0.8, composite reliability is about 0.9 and convergent validity is more than 0.5. Also, the result of the divergent validity analysis of the model have shown that all components are suitable for the relevant indexes. The criterion of communality values showing the quality of the measurement models is confirmed. Likewise, the fitting of the generalized structural equation model, which is 0.87, indicates the robustness of the model. Therefore, the evaluation and assessment of the criteria and structural model showed that all variables (indicators) and (hidden) components are suitable criteria for the research model and their relationship is significant and generally strong. Regarding the results, it is observed that the "water use efficiency in water crop" index is more important in promoting rural water productivity. This suggests that the farmer can have more favorable conditions for increasing production if they have or access to water management and control. However, the same conditions are not available for use of surface water such as irrigation networks that are not equipped with volumetric instruments and are not available to rural users at the right time and right place. Therefore, given the significant impact (about 85.4%) of climate change and environmental factors on rural water resources, priority and investment to promote water productivity in rural communities to promote water productivity, as an important factor, should be considered by all strategic managers of the country at regional, and national levels. an attention should be paid to positive correlation between the components and climate indicators and environmental factors, in environmental and projection studies as well as operational planning of rural areas. Since the four indicators including "the quality of climatic and environmental factors", "proper use of precipitation" ,"reducing the consequences of natural events" and "production pattern with climatic features" are more closely related to "climate and environmental factors" respectively, and likewise the indicator "amount of agricultural production (kg) to the volume of current floods in the country (cube meter) has the highest coefficient, it is recommended that appropriate investment measures is developed to optimize the use of atmospheric rainfall and current flood events, such as water and sewerage plans and rainwater harvesting.

Although there is an almost 90 years of historical background for achieving welfare measures in Iran, there is still no safety umbrella despite the Islamic Revolution’s promises of preparing public and welfare services and developing the justice and equality in all contexts, especially for excluded people after 36 years as extreme poverty, absolute poverty and relative poverty indicators affect the majority of people . In this study, an institutional approach was used to analyze the welfare policies.. The document analysis method was applied through which articles, books, documents, rules and interviews were investigated using the secondary analysis technique.
Critical Review: The lack of an efficient and centralized welfare structure has led to inconsistency and abuse of available welfare resources.
Comprehensive system of welfare and social security law also failed to solve the structured historical inefficiencies in practice. Although parallel institutions to the government have played a good role in the provision of services and support, the absence of an efficient and centralized welfare structure which is based on up-to-date information has led to incoherence, parallel work, distribution and abuse of available welfare resources. Considering this, Iran’s society asked the government to pass a law on a comprehensive system of welfare and social security in 2004.
This study argues that, during the reviewed period, every government, regardless of their policy and according to society’s needs have created a structure, organizations and bureaucracy in order to implement welfare.
These organizations instead of attending to the society’s needs have changed into the institutions that try to preserve their power and internal interests to maintain their existence . Due to lack of ability in the accumulation of capital in society, this issue will historically repeat itself, resulting in a waste of resources and time, on the one hand and failure to achieve the goals on the other hand. However, executive agencies which receive a large budget from the government yet are unable to afford maximum coverage. Parallel organizational work and repetitive activities alongside the inefficient traditional structures and weak agency have led to the widespread distribution of welfare in the country. The lack of an organization that is directly responsible for the welfare of the country and the lack of transparency of government’s supervision is evident in the welfare sector. Such a structure needs correction, but creating individual benefits (by organizational and mid-level officials) affects the structural reforms. These interests provoke the conflict between organizations. Governments either before or after the revolution have failed to overcome the interests existing in organizations and supervise the welfare institutions. Informal structures in organizations that are hidden from the evaluations and outside observers, support the existing interests and the owner of interests do not allow for the structural changes.

This paper elaborates on the issue that has been raised in our previous studies i.e.,”an analysis of the reproduction of conservative values in mate selection on iran” and “gender differences in mate preferences in online dating in iran”. In those studies we concluded that the homogamy is the core theory that explains the mate preference behavior of Iranian youth. This theory Is the main sociological analysis tool for mate preference in almost every recent research literature. The raise and the popularity of online dating among iranian youth has motivated us to answer the following question, whether the mate preference of users in online dating services follows the theory of homogamy, and also whether the theory holds for online dating as well as real life dating. To answer these questions, we based our work on the data gather from profiles of 84000 users of a well known Iranian dating service (called Tooba). The paper depicts the statistical results in various tables through the paper.

This paper aims to study the effect of the government size on human development index over the last three decades in post-revolutionary Iran. Since during these decades the government expenditures have inclined to increase, there has often been a notion among some scholars that the welfare nature of the government has intensified. This has seemingly enforced the idea that the increase of the government disbursements has resulted in the enhancement of human development index in Iran. Nevertheless, the findings of this study, based on econometric models, indicate that despite the fact that the increase of capital expenditures has had a positive effect on the country’s human development index, from the point of view of growth in consuming (current) expenditures, not only it has had no positive or reasonable effect but has had negative effect on the index. In addition, findings indicated that governments in Iran do not follow from the budget models recommended by UN and the government claim pertaining the improvement of people’s quality of life has only been a slogan. Furthermore, the study concludes that other factors like the growth of population has affected the increasing trends of the human development index that should be taken into account in the analysis.

Given that unequal opportunity in society and consequent unequal access to urban facilities and amenities are the main reasons responsible for handicapped and disabled people, this paper aims to probe the lived experience of visual handicapped people in interaction with urban space in the city of Tehran, through studying the fact that how will these spaces provide the equal chances and accesses for these people. According to the purpose of research, this study is based on qualitative method. A method of deep half structured interview has been used to collect data from the field. For this purpose, thirty visually handicapped persons living in the city of Tehran were chosen. The findings indicated that urban spaces in the city of Tehran provide a lot of physical and social obstacles for the blinded to participate in the society. This in turn puts forward a risk of threatening their physical and psycho health, imposing a dependency situation and neediness on them as well as facing them with people’s improper attitudes and treatments towards them. This means that their pattern of living has been limited to basic activities, reducing their choices and social interactions. Regarding the research findings, the paper argues that in spite of some measures and attempts by concerned agencies and authorities, yet most of the handicapped, particularly the blind, in city of Tehran, have no equally proper access to urban spaces and facilities, based on citizen rights.

This paper studies the effect of gender differences in mate preference in one of the major Iranian online dating services. To best of our knowledge, there are only few similar studies conducted with this objective focusing on Iran. A quantitate approach is utilized in this paper which is inferred from a database of approximately 84 thousands of users from various geographical location inside Iran. Statistical analysis of this paper concentrates on two important criteria; (1) Personal/Parental qualities (which includes: honesty, kindness, faith and trustworthiness, fidelity, being funny and loving travel) and (2) Attractiveness/Social Status (which includes: looks, education, income, family status and being born in Tehran). The study concludes that men tends to prefer qualities such as looks, honesty and fidelity while women mostly prefer qualities such as being born in Tehran, education, faith and trustworthiness, family status and income over other qualities

Street labor children have been a new emerging phenomenon as well as a main concern about modern society. Due to the vulnerability of these children, and inability of governments to tackle their mounting problems, an increasing involvement of NGOs in helping these children have recently emerged. Having believed that the best way to deal with the issue of street children is to empower them so that they can live normally, this paper aims to study the role of NGOs in the empowerment of street labor children in Tehran through using a field research method. For this purpose, three dimensions of empowerment, including education, living skills and health were chosen for the study. It was assumed that NGOs initiatives affect the difficult states of the children positively through following both NGOs initiatives and the children socio-economic background. Findings indicated that most of the respondents believed that NGOs activities have had considerable effect on changing wretched conditions of the children. Moreover, the analysis of the data showed that NGOs initiatives are significantly associated with the empowerment of the children. The paper concludes that to enhance the state of the children, the active involvement of NGOs is necessary. Otherwise, they are rarely able to develop themselves, though this involvement should be based on a comprehensive approach. That is, any successful policy or initiative not only should focus on the street children as a very target group, but also on family as a major basis for the children misery and delinquency.

Introduction and Statement of the Problem: The development of various mates choosing methods, including online dating mate selection, beyond traditionally dominant ones can be seen as a major characteristic of contemporary societies. It takes its roots in the advancement of infrastructures of communicational technology, what has caused the growing number of IT users something that is no longer class specific and various individuals from social strata have now access to it. Hence, it seems that online dating and mate selection is a response or a maybe a solution to mate choosing crisis in the uneven development of the modern world that has brought about and has increased individualized and non-face-to face social relations. However, as online-dating method has been on the rise broadly, sensitivity to it has also developed in various societies especially by official institutions. The rationale behind these concerns usually includes concerns over it being considered an unusual phenomenon. This consequently creates some socio-cultural concern, due mainly to the fact that virtual space has brought about a great opportunity for people to broaden their choices and relations beyond traditionally limited social networks. This is the case in Iran particularly since the past decade, as the use of internet began to increase. There is usually, officially and ideologically, a strong inclination in Iran towards seeing such phenomenon as online dating mate selection but also as a threat to societal norms and as a way of destroying genuine social relations and diffusing social delinquency and sexual anarchy. It is therefore something that deserves to combat against. While there is a profound pessimistic attitude in the society towards modern online dating marriage, no attempt has been made to study it in a systematic and scientific way which can to some extent support such claims or whether it is the case in Iran. This study is an attempt to fill such gap as it focuses on online dating mate selection sites in Iran. Due to the fact that this issue, in terms of its history and its comprehensiveness regarding the quantity and qualities of users, is a complex issue, this study only will focus on Toba Dating Site. Theoretical Conceptual Framework Based on the existing literature, here in this study we assumed that since various societies believe in different values, mate selection in virtual space does not necessarily follow a universal pattern. This could mean that in any individual country including Iran, changes towards modernity may mean that dominant preferences in mate selection follow modern values as opposed to traditional ones. Accordingly it can be said that in spite of society’s desire towards change and transition in mate selection orientations, individuals’ mate selection preferences could be to a great extant traditional and conservative. Methodological Considerations In order to support our claim we used survey method to examine the identity and orientation of mate choice preferences /values. Toba online dating site as the units of analysis also constitutes the research population. Due to accessibility to profiles of all users, the study was based on including all individuals of the research population, including about 84 000 users of Toba site. The data provided all information of the users’ potential preferred mate choices and we considered all them for the data analysis. Based on the research main hypothesis two concepts are important conservative and modern or none- conservative values. The former refers to traditional values and codes dominating on society over generations. In this research these values refer to those studied in the second round of National Survey on Iranian Vales and Attitudes such as belief, purity, morality, honesty, literacy, faith, loyalty, accountability, good financial state etc. In contrast, the latter refers to those values that traditional society does not tolerate development of them and attempts to resist against their diffusion. In the case of mate selection, they may refer to such examples as pre-marriage relations between two sexes, love, intellectuality, good looking, etc. Findings some of the findings indicate that, contrary to conservative notion that views online dating sites and modern tools the like, as means of threatening genuine traditional values, marriage values among Toba users are still overwhelmingly conservative meaning the users still prefer to choose their mate if they carry traditional characteristics. Nevertheless, one can see some gradual penetration of modern values along with traditional values, which have not dominated on the users’ preferences yet. For examples, they may refer to such preferences as liking to travel, enjoying leisure, being Tehrani resident, being up to date, intellectuality etc. The finding also indicate that some values have changed and simultaneously re-emphasized, such as being beautiful/good looking, having university degree. The analysis of the data also showed that there is a considerable variation regarding mate preferences between male and female users. For example, preferences of leisure and travel which are new in Iranian society are mostly emphasized by female users. On one end and as many researchers have noted, prettiness is more important for men than for women. On the other end, financial state, accountability, faith and kindness are more significant for women than for men. Contrary to other societies, loyalty is highly underscored by male than by female users, indicating the development of trustless feeling in the contemporary Iranian society. These some contradictory issues obvious here because mate selection values and preferences are dominantly conservative, but some modern values penetrated to the society making the people mistrustful. This may be a feature of a transitional society in which individuals search for open and liberal relations, while in the case of mate selection, they seek physically and intellectually modern mate. It seems this may cause a decrease in values such as honesty and loyalty.

Following the extension in research area and difficulty in different phenomena''s research، new necessity in research is generated. So، in each project of research has used different methods. Mixed method has granted opportunity to researchers to mix different dates and results in scientific framework that exploited of different methods (qualitative and quantitative methods). In this way، researchers can access the best solution for different problems and recognizing them. In this article، three movement of methodology (qualitative and quantitative and mixed methods) are mentioned and is studied the advantages of mixed method in small scale projects. For example، rural development projects، specially rural tourism.

The objective of this paper is to investigate whether or not paradigm shift from modernism to postmodernism can inspire rural and developmental studies. Having discussed scientific and rational principles of modernism and some of its prominent beliefs, it is argued that modernism was enforced the processes of exclusivity and marginality in the process of rural development, owing mainly to its character of abstraction and segregation of thinking from the actual life. In contrast to emphasis of modernism on the principles of professionalism, rationalism, global truth etc., postmodernism underlines on cultural and moral relativity in the process of development. Having discussed the postmodern basic theoretical, methodological and policy tenets– in the fields of radical pluralism, action-network approach, local development and participatory action research– the paper concludes that all of these developments paves the way for hearing 'the voices of the neglected other's and '(rural) marginalized geographie's in the process of change and progress.

Throughout last years, we have witnessed a growing trend in HIV affected patients in the country in general and in the city of Tehran in particular. HIV/AIDS disease creates various HIV-related socio-economic troubles for an infected patient in a manner seeming that these troubles are much more fatal that those coming up from the very illness of AIDS. For this reason, this study has focused on the socio-economic state of HIV affected patients in Iran using the case of patients in the infectious sector of Imam Khomeini Hospital. Techniques of qualitative methods such as indepth interview and focused-group discussion were used to collect the research data. The findings indicated that this disease highly affect the socio-economic state of the AIDS patient in different ways, particularly excluding him/ her from natural and civil rights mainly through the process of stigmatization and labeling.