Sociological Reflection on the System of Social Problems and Harms (Case study of West Azarbaijan Province)

Document Type : Research Article

Author

Department of Sociology, Faculty of Literature and Human Sciences, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify and prioritize the system of social issues and harms in West Azerbaijan Province to align the executive field with the academic field, crea​te a common conceptual space, and draw the attention of executive managers to the scientific findings of the social field in order to achieve social development. Social realism and constructivism are the two primary theoretical approaches that have been proposed for the examination of social issues and damages. The system of problems and the relevance and priority of social issues from the elites' perspective have been identified through the application of constructivism in this research.
The current research methodology is inductive in terms of research strategy, qualitative in terms of research nature, applied in terms of purpose, and exploratory in terms of data analysis. The statistical population of this research consists of key informants and expert experts in the field of social hazards, including university professors of social sciences, executive managers, and experts in the social field. These individuals were selected using non-probability targeted sampling. The unit of analysis in this research is harms and social issues, while the unit of observation is a person with either personal experience or an opinion regarding social harms. The data was collected using the semi-structured interview technique, focus group meetings, and Delphi technique, and the data was analyzed using “Mic Mac” software.
The experimental results of the research suggest that the province's social system is in an unstable state in terms of social damages and institutional malfunction (management weakness) due to the distribution of variables and indicators in the axes of influence and direct and indirect dependence of the issues on each other. Marginalization, addiction, street children, divorce, poverty, and unemployment are regarded as fundamental, strategic, and critical issues. Consequently, it is imperative to prioritize these issues in the planning of social interventions in light of the results and findings of this research.

Keywords

References

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