جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « Social policy » در نشریات گروه « علوم اجتماعی »

A social problem is an issue that is widely seen as challenging within a society. This definition combines objective and subjective factors and varies across time and location. Marginalized and deprived neighborhoods are a major problem in modern cities, causing various types of social harm (Amiri et al., 2013). Kermanshah, a major Iranian city, faces this issue - it has 36 designated high-need areas, 13 of which are marginalized. Despite efforts to address these neighborhoods, the results have been unsatisfactory. The key question is: what prioritization framework should policies use to target social problems in these neighborhoods and how does it align with the actual prevalence of issues in the areas?

This study used a mixed-methods approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative components. For the quantitative portion, a survey was conducted. A multi-stage cluster sampling technique was used to select 800 households from 2 affluent neighborhoods and 13 deprived neighborhoods. The target population included all households in the selected areas (Statistics Center of Iran, 2015). The initial sample size, calculated using Cochran's formula, was 400 households. However, to ensure a minimum of 30 samples for smaller neighborhoods and a maximum of 100 for larger ones, the final sample size increased to 650 households in the deprived neighborhoods and 150 in the affluent ones. The validity of the survey questionnaire was confirmed through expert review. The qualitative component used a three-tier approach to establish the research validity and reliability.

The research findings indicated that the residents of deprived neighborhoods primarily viewed economic issues, such as poverty, unemployment, and deprivation, as the most pressing social problems. However, the specific priorities identified by the local stakeholders for addressing these issues did not always align with the actual prevalence of problems in the communities. A key insight was the disconnect between the severity of problems in a neighborhood and the prioritization for addressing them. While economic challenges were widely recognized as major social issues, the priorities identified by the local actors often focused on other concerns, such as security, accessibility, health, and education infrastructure. This suggested a duality between the prevalence of problems and prioritization of solutions. These findings indicated that policymaking around social problems in the deprived neighborhoods tended to prioritize common, easily-addressed issues, rather than the deeper, more systemic challenges facing these communities. This approach might aim to produce and reproduce certain individual and collective identities aligned with those of more affluent urban areas, rather than truly empowering the marginalized communities. The research findings revealed an interesting contrast. While economic problems were widely recognized as the most significant social issues across all the deprived neighborhoods, the specific priorities identified by local stakeholders varied. In some areas, priorities centered on security and accessibility, while in others, the focus was on health and education infrastructure. This suggested that the problems perceived as most pressing by community members were not necessarily the ones that were economically-driven. Moreover, the service institutions tasked with implementing neighborhood improvement programs, such as the police, welfare agencies, and religious centers, had struggled to effectively meet the communities' desired goals. These institutions, which were meant to serve as intermediaries in translating program principles to the target population, had fallen short in providing effective services aligned with the communities' needs and priorities. Notably, these findings came despite the government's reliance on these service institutions to drive neighborhood empowerment and improvement programs. The research indicated that the performance of these mediating organizations varied significantly across different localities. This suggested that the underlying rationale behind policymaking on social issues in these neighborhoods might be focused on addressing the most visible, common problems, rather than the deeper, systemic challenges. To this end, policymakers had often utilized available tools and techniques, such as increasing the duties and responsibilities of service providers. Additionally, this approach appeared to aim at producing and reproducing certain individual and collective identities that aligned with the standards of more affluent urban areas, rather than empowering the marginalized communities themselves.

Since the formation of the quasi-modern state in Iran, the lack of a comprehensive approach to the issue of development and the gradual dominance of readings of governance that are defined as state-oriented and asocial have led to the prosperity of the social issue and the collapse of the bio-historical logic of the Iranian society. In this article, while using Parsons's four-level theoretical system and with a neo-functionalist approach, using the descriptive-analytical method and using documentary studies, the conceptual revision of the social issue and its separation from other areas have been discussed. It has been explained that the social issue, due to its centrality in the public and "informal" sphere, is different from the political issue, due to the emphasis on factors such as social justice, public satisfaction, and social trust, from the economic issue, and due to relying on relationships, links and objective roles that They are defined against mental patterns, it is distinguished from the cultural thing. Then, by criticizing theories such as "division of knowledge" and the approach of "methodological individualism", it deals with the most important theoretical causes and the approach that leads to the rejection of the social issue from the theoretical field and its marginalization from the policy-making position, and finally shows the mechanism that is defined. How can we witness the formation of social governance by considering social strains in policy making.

Given the ongoing global demographic shift toward an aging population and the consequent rise in retirement fund expenditures, nearly all such funds are grappling with a critical situation. Furthermore, the remarkable dynamism of today's social and economic conditions worldwide necessitates a reevaluation of various institutions over relatively short periods. The survival of public organizations in these changing conditions depends on their adaptability, flexibility, and alignment with the economic and social environment while remaining committed to their core objectives. Hence, for formulating effective strategies to navigate these adaptations, understanding the factors contributing to the retirement fund crisis is of increasing importance. The primary focus of this research is to investigate the influential factors in the formation of retirement fund crises from the perspective of key stakeholders. This study employs a qualitative methodology, specifically content analysis, utilizing interview data as the data collection tool and employing content analysis as the analytical approach. The findings of the research reveal that, from the stakeholders' viewpoint, the causes of the crisis are perceived in four domains: "economic recession," "lack of expertise and specialization," "diminished trust in the organization," and "the organization as a secluded enclave of government." The "support ratio" domain emerges as one of the most critical factors contributing to the issue, as it relates directly to the "economic crisis" in society, leading to a decrease in productive investments.

This paper discusses the situation of social policy in Iran under the rule of the modern state through the spatial coverage of the social security system. The investigation using documentary and a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods has considered the inequality amongst provinces under the shadow of social security which in the recent century has led to a situation of the center-peripheries. Territorial centralism of the modern state and consequently the Tehran-axial which itself mutually fosters centralism and center-peripheral inequality, a system of planning from above and distribution of occupation opportunities, industry and services, and the allocation of social policy-making, economic and welfare resources based on the capital in the period of Pahlavi state and its continuation into the period of the Islamic Republic has resulted in spatial imbalance and reduction and stabilization of the political-economic and social situation of marginal regions which so-called the peripheries. Inequality and distance between regions in the shape of center-peripheries has led to the imbalance in the coverage of the social security system throughout the country since the social security system and its insurances expand following the cycle of industries, employment and services.

Considering the close relationship between social policy making and political field, it’s attempted to analyze forming of social policies related to social harms during the revolution as a turning point in political developments with a view to Foucault's theory of governance. In order to objectify the methodological steps, thematic analyses were used. Also in order to answer the research questions, the required data were used as non-reactive criteria and theoretical sampling method was used to select the samples. According to  the prevailing social and political conditions, a revolutionary discourse that elaborates on the synchronization of moments of guilt / crime / harm, the dominance of the legal approach and judicial intervention, moral cleansing, protectionist policy-making and coping with disability. It made sense to dominate the sphere of social harm policy-making at the beginning of the revolution. In the discourse of this period, the social dimension of social harm policy-making in favor of the legal dimension was less considered. But the point to consider during the hegemony of policies was their social acceptance. It is necessary to pay serious attention to the issue of social acceptance, because social acceptance of any policy guarantees the success of that policy.

The history of social policy in Iran is primarily focused on events related to laws and the establishment of social insurance organizations. Paying attention to the municipality as an active institution in the history of social policy can provide a more multi-faceted and long-standing narrative of social policy in Iran.The purpose of this study is to highlight this issue, and identify changes in the direction of municipal social policy with an emphasis on Tehran Municipality. The conceptual approach of this research is based on Marshall's citizenship rights model. The research method is historical analysis based on historical documents available in this field included official documents containing information about the municipality (from 1908 to the end of the 2010s).The research findings indicate that the period under study can be divided into five different periods, in which social policy has been distinct in these periods: First period: Mashruteh heritage (from the first national parliament to the end of the sixth parliament); Second period: Continuation of welfare services while initial hopes are fading (from the beginning of the seventh parliament to the end of the 1950s); Third period: Urban services dominance and social services retreat (1960s until the Islamic Revolution in 1979); Fourth period: leaving the field of social policy (from the beginning of the Islamic Republic system to early 1990s); and Fifth period: Return to the field of social policy (from mid-1990s to end of 2010s).The research results interact with other theoretical approaches testify that immediately after stabilizing political rights in Iran, social rights have been crystallized but with weakening political rights, social services have not decreased but have been at the service of state-building.

Hope for the future in recent social science studies indicates a positive assessment of the improvement of economic and social conditions. Evaluation of one's future is greatly influenced by evaluation of past trends and the current state of society. In fact, respondents' assessment of the future is a kind of critique of the current and past situation and policies; A kind of reflection evaluation and critique of the continuity and stickiness of current policies. This perception is reminiscent of the historical nature of the issue of hope. In this paper, society’s assessment of the future is reviewed based on data from the National Social Health Survey. In this survey, which was conducted in 2018, the respondents' assessment of the future situation was sought in eight economic and social areas: welfare status, happiness, moral and religious values, economic status, status of empathy, housing status, health status, and employment status. One question is asked about each of these, and the three options "gets better", "does not change", and "gets worse" are presented to the respondents. Putting the data of this survey with the two surveys of Iranians 'values and attitudes and social capital over time shows the declining trend of Iranians' hopeful assessment of the future. Using the data in the analytical and statistical reports of related areas such as poverty, unemployment, regional inequalities and the status of the provinces, etc., the relationship between the survey data and the actual situation of the society is explained.

The main purpose of the present study is providing a critique and a critical strategic evaluation of a set of social policies adopted by the Iranian decision-making system and executive power in the past few decades. For reaching this purpose, these policies including decisions and actions regarding issues, problems, harms and crimes were identified in five categories. Then the basics of confrontation policy and policy selection, implementation, and evaluation have been reviewed. The method is meta-synthesis which uses the existing analyses, assessments and critiques of Iranian scholars and researchers, as well as the author's lived experience. After a brief review of the current status of social issues, which indicates failures and lack of success, and also a brief overview of the policies adopted, the findings show that the identification of issues has been untimely and delayed. As for the general principles, there has been a kind of uncertainty, a biological and individualistic approach, and an indifference to the basic solutions. In the field of policy review and selection, there is a lack of learning and inattention to policy experiences, centralism, sentimentality, lack of audience recognition, lack of transparency, and disregard for marginalized groups and indigenous-local conditions. As to the implementation, we see the lack or inadequate distribution of financial resources, disregard for policies, lack of infrastructure, mismatch and the problem of human resources. In the field of execution, we face the weakness of the executive power, the ceremonial/ritual confrontation, and the lack of matrix thinking and haste. As to the monitoring phase, the lack of a monitoring system and the weak participation of civil society organizations in the evaluation process are among the most important weaknesses. Finally, we have proposed strategies such as transparency and structural change.

Housing is one of the areas that has become one of the most important areas in social policy making. In Iran, after the Islamic Revolution, general policies and policies on housing provision in economic, social and cultural development programs have been envisaged and have been approved and implemented by the relevant governments in the form of development plan legislation. There have been attempts to turn them around.The present article, using qualitative content analysis, seeks to examine the policies of governments in the field of housing in the context of post-revolutionary development plans in Iran.The statistical population of the research is the texts of the laws of fourth and fifth development plans in the country and the data gathering tool is the use of an encryption and categorization system or a checklist.The findings indicate that in the fourth development plan, housing policy was developed in line with the policy of organizing worn-out tissues and providing low-income housing (Mehr Housing). In the context of the Fifth Development Plan, government officials have focused on Islamic-Iranian urban development patterns, "Mehr housing".

Children are one of the target groups of the social policy system in Iran, whose welfare status is still in dispute. Examining the historical trend of child-centered social policies in Iran can play a role in recognizing the problems in this area and, consequently, reducing them. This study examines the legislative and institutional transformations related to children since the formation of the parliament in Iran. The research method is documentary. In this regard, the approved laws and programs and general approaches of all three historical periods to childhood were examined. The results show that although the first Pahlavi era passed laws to protect children, the government tried to respond mainly to the needs of children in the form of charities and endowments. During the second Pahlavi era, efforts in this field gradually took an organized and cohesive form. During the Islamic Republic of Iran, children and childhood received more and more comprehensive attention from the Constitution to other laws. However, tensions between traditional or religious approaches and modern approaches determine the nature of most policies that in many cases has led to children being deprived of much support.

The health system as the main custodian of health in Iran has a history of nearly a century and during this period has witnessed many changes to the current form and structure. This study aims to investigate the factors affecting the formation and evolution of the health system and the policy-making process in it with an interdisciplinary perspective.

The research has been conducted in a historical way and historical texts about the health system and its sub-sectors including health care and education have been reviewed and analyzed with an institutionalist approach.

The government, civil society, private sector, family and international institutions have been the main agents of health policy in Iran from the beginning until now, which in the context of situational, structural, cultural and external factors have directed the health system and its developments in Iran. They have been effective.

Although the government has been the main agent of health policy in Iran from the beginning, but many institutional factors have been effective on its efficiency and performance in the field of health, and this institution needs more serious attention to community elements to formulate health policies and pave the way for social justice. Civility and the characteristics of families and leaving matters to the private sector, and in this way interaction with international institutions and the use of their experiences, especially in the field of health is of particular importance.

There has been lots of heated debates going on in Iran about the subsidy reduction policy after the revolution 1979. This policy, however, has remained in the center of attention, even though lots of socio-economical events has happened since then and most of the political actors have changed. The goal of this research is to study the changes of the paradigm in the past four decades and also the approaches taken by parliament and state back in the time. The policy paradigm developed by Hall (1993) is the main theory of this research. The current method is quantitative and concentrated on Islamic parliament negotiations in 10 terms. The results show that the paradigm is dominant, having four elements. Some policy ideas have been developed under the influence of this paradigm. Among lots of criticism that this paradigm has received, only the one seeking to develop a Comprehensive System of Social Security and Welfare was successful. This idea, however, failed to get institutionalized. The results suggest that in order to change the policy, more authority is needed than the Plan and Budget Organization’s, which is in charge of governing the dominant paradigm.

Social Policy refers to the government decisions on distribution of resources and facilities for achieving a certain goal in a particular period of time. These decisions are aimed at increasing the society members’ well-being and/or solving a social problem. Harmony in section and inter-section policy making provides social order, which is necessary as the basis for achieving the social system objectives.One of the most important indicators of efficacy in higher education system is its compatibility with business market and employment. This study deals with the lack of coordination in policy making between Ministry of Higher Education and Employment Department as well as the outcomes due to the certain objectives, like social order and well-being

In this study, the research questions have been addressed at two levels; micro and macro-analyses. In macro level, content analysis and secondary analysis with the help of available statistics, and in micro level, the survey method have been applied.

In macro-level, the findings indicated lack of coordination between higher education and employment policies with respect to the five-year development plans. The micro-level findings also highlighted the inter-section lack of harmony.

Disscution:

 In fact, graduates’ unemployment or lack of harmony between their jobs and fields of study/levels of education relates to the lack of coordination between the two sections of employment and higher education in macro-level. Such disharmony has disturbed the balance between supply and demand of expert forces and caused disorders in the society. Such disorder leads to graduates’ unemployment, experts’ emigration, accordingly wastes the country’s capital.

development plans enhance the economic and social life of communities. Accordingly, present study aimed to review the health-related policies in development plans (first to sixth) of Iran based on the framework of social policy.

This is a quantitative content analysis study. Accordingly, the texts of development plan provisions dealing with at least one of the categories in the field of health, were selected as the sample. SPSS software was used for data analysis.

Results of the study showed given the degree of obligation, the degree of compulsory obligation with 55% had the highest index. Given the Health Ministry’s enforcement agent, treatment and medical education with 31.6% was the main agent. Moreover, the target groups of all members of society with 17.7%, had the highest rate. In terms of policy and service, the service rules with 57.9% had the highest rate. In the field of policy and service, treatment with 13.9% had the highest rate.

As health issues are one of the well-known instances of social policy as a set of actions and policies affecting the well-being and life of people in society, so the results of the study showed that an attempt has been made to take steps towards the realization of social policies and creation of justice in provision of health facilities for all people in the first to sixth development plans.

The social protection system is related to policy-making in the field of "social assistance", "social insurance" and "labor market policy", which is considered as a human right, regardless of the type of welfare model of countries in managing social risks. This document based study examines the situation of countries (170 countries) with different incomes and welfare systems in the field of social protection policies in the face of the corona. China, Malaysia and Turkey, which were examined more closely either because they were within existing welfare frameworks or because they had a progressive trend in welfare policy. The results of the study showed that greater diversity in social protection schemes and a priori action is effective in early control of the disease and high-income countries have been more successful in diversifying these schemes, in particular, labor market support schemes and complementary social support schemes based on Basic needs have been able to help effectively control the disease and improve the welfare of society.

Using an analytical approach and proposing the question: How is the convergence of social policy and social work possible? this study aims to investigate the role of social work in social policy development and the effect of welfare ideologies, and consequently social policies on social work. This paper identifies and conceptualizes the areas of interest to express this relationship in two axial roles: 1) the minimalist role in which the social worker is only the executor of social policy. In this situation, the social worker appears in the role of social policy executor in organizations and centers that provide social services, and 2) the extremist role in which the social worker acts as the social policy reformer. In this situation, the social worker embarks on a plan to analyze the existing problem, to present a research proposal, and even approve the policy at the same time with implementing the social policies to determine the agenda for implementing or preventing the implementation of a policy. In this role, the social worker both helps with developing the effective social work in a two-way interaction with social policy and help with the dynamicity and evolution of the social policy in an organic connection; the synergy interaction which is considered as a necessity for up-to-date social work and applied social policy in Iran.

The analysis of discourse texts during 1989-1997 indicated that the discourse governing this period was of economic development type. Based on this discourse, the main condition of independence was justice, poverty alleviation, continuation of revolution, and economic development. One of the necessary requirements of policy analysis is evaluating the programs of this period according to its governing spirit in the context of contextual discourse. Thus, the objective was explaining the role of socio-political discourse of economic development in the formation of pension funds crisis. In other words, the roots and causes of funds crisis were evaluated in the discourse layer and also the future constructivism was illustrated in form of narration. The findings indicated that the concept of retirement was represented in the discourse context of economic development due to the most important sign of this period, i.e. "production and economic development" with its specific interpretation. The signified being consistent with this sense including the adjustment of human resources, government downsizing, etc., have experienced semantic reduction and have provided the potential of specific orientations on social security, retirement policies, funds crisis accumulation, and transmission of crisis narration to future governments.

The living of the elderly has been turned into a problematic issue affected by social, cultural and economic changes, however, this problematic is not registered in policy makings and there is not appropriate social polices associated to the elderly. The subject of the current study is observe social policies in the context of development plans after the Revolution, to discover overt and covert concepts and to understand the ways of political encounter to this emerging phenomenon. Thematic analysis technique has been selected for data analysis from among different qualitative methods. Reviewing ageing policies in Iranian development plans demonstrates the themes like “imprisoning ageing in the retirement”, “gradual withdrawal of the government , "commodification of social services” and “a propaganda for establishment of comprehensive social security system” that after all, explain the theme of "exclusion of ageing in social policy". The lack of elderly care policies, the marginalization of gender in the social policies of the elderly, the absence of active and friendly elderly policies, and the rural elderly are also political gaps. Finally, we suggest intergenerational planning for the ageing period, active and successful ageing policies, elderly-friendly urban policies, prospecting in policy-making for elderly, gender-based social support policies, and eventually, social support for vulnerable elders in social policy of elderly.

The development of criminology and the subsequent failure of governments to deal with criminal phenomena have led to new approaches to protesting the status quo. Among these approaches was critical criminology, and one of the important theories underlying this approach was peace criminology. This branch of criminology is based on reconciliation and represents a peaceful approach to dealing with the perpetrators and is in fact opposed to any use of punishment. The pacifist criminology's view of the concept of crime and the ways to deal with it differ from those of other criminologists, and the use of this attitude and strategies for some crimes can have beneficial effects. In this regard, the experiences of some countries have proved the efficacy of this type of criminology perspective. The purpose of this article, after understanding the philosophical and religious foundations of pacifist criminology, is to gain an understanding of this type of criminology from the point of view of crime and then to understand the methods and tasks of dealing with crime from the perspective of criminology. Finally, following inspiration from the experiences of peace-loving countries in the area of some crimes, in particular violent crimes, it is suggested that in order to achieve the main purpose of different criminality, namely crime reduction, in the regulation of some laws and laws in Iran, Keep traditional approaches to criminology away from peaceful criminological perspectives.