Correlation Analysis of Cultural Development and Social Security in Iran

K. Habibi, H. Alizadeh, A. Meshkini and M.J. Kohsari

K. Habibi, H. Alizadeh, A. Meshkini and M.J. Kohsari, 2008. Correlation Analysis of Cultural Development and Social Security in Iran. Journal of Applied Sciences, 8: 802-808.

DOI: 10.3923/jas.2008.802.808

URL: https://scialert.net/abstract/?doi=jas.2008.802.808

MATERIALS AND METHODS

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While mathematics is generally thought to be the language of science, data analysis is the language of research (George and Mallery, 1995 quoted in Shawesh 2000). Data was gathered via a mixture of documentary retrieval and analysis.

Fig. 1:	The process of the research

The primary data has been collected from Ministry of the Interior and Statistic Centre of Iran which comprised annual statistics (1996-2003) and House and Population Census (1956-1996) (Statistic Office of Iran, 2003a). After collecting data from the main sources, the next steps of such analytical research comprise sorting data and building explanations, this means analysis and interpretation. Accordingly, the first task of the researcher is categorizing and indexing the information according to subjects and issues. This will give the researcher an ability to focus and organize the retrieval of sections of information, or its elements, for the purpose of some form of further analysis or manipulation and to get a sense of the scope and coverage of their data, so this process can also help researchers in their conceptual, analytical and theoretical thinking. To do this, different methods of analyzing data has been reviewed comprising Human Development Index, Factor Analysis, Numerical Taxonomy and Cluster Analysis, etc. The data analysis has been carried out based on the Numerical Taxonomy. Numerical Taxonomy was recognized as a basic technique to classify the level of socio-cultural development between different nations and regions. This model can classify a set of values and to somehow generate equal homogenate subsets and give a scale to know the degree of socio-economical development (Mahmoodi and Feizpoor, 1997). Before analyzing the generated data, the variables concerning both cultural development and crime has been derived through Delphi Method. Then, the results have been put into the Numerical Taxonomy Software to reach the ranking stage among provinces. This has been done for both cultural development and crime. The final stage is concerning the availability of any correlation coefficient between both subjects. The research process has been summarized in Fig. 1 which shows four main steps leading to the main aim of the study.

CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT RANKING ACROSS THE PROVINCES

In the 21st century, the paradigm of mind and matter has been defined in the form of culture and technology. This is not all, to the extent that the balance has been changed in benefit of the culture. It means that the culture became the leading factor in acceleration of development (Azkia, 1998). Nowadays, in the paradigm of development, there are different attitude towards the culture.

Table 1:	Ranking of the provinces according to the cultural development

Table 2:	Correlation coefficient between different variables regarding cultural development in the provinces

Fig. 2:	Ranking cultural development of the provinces` provinces

Those follows modernism approach believes that the state of development does not occur unless majority of the population accept new values of life. Human capital theories believe that the national development is conditioned by human capital. Therefore, the culture is a production investment (Masoodian, 1993). Generally, based on the world literature concerning the concept of development, it is clear that the cultural development is a primary condition and infrastructure of other developments.

Quantities indicators concerning the cultural development have been extracted from different theories (Morris, 1979; Preston, 1997; Mazumdar, 1999; Schech and Haggis, 2000; Pieterse, 2002). These indicators are 22 variables which have been defined as bases for evaluating cultural development of the country`s provinces. These variables alongside some other permanent indicators such as population and area of each province, which has been derived from annual statistics (1996-2002) of the country, evaluated using Morris technique (Statistic Office of Iran, 2003b). The results are cultural development ranking across the provinces and developmental coefficient in each category (Table 1, 2). Considering these developmental coefficients, the level of cultural development can be defined in each province. As the Table 2 shows, there are visible differences between the provinces so that the province of Tehran has the highest (level 1) and Sistan va Baloochestan the lowest (level 28) level of cultural development. This ranking of cultural development can be classified into four levels of developed, developing, less developed and undeveloped provinces (Fig. 2). Among the culturally developed provinces, Tehran has a significant difference with others. This can be justified concerning the dominant role of the city of Tehran regarding its socio-economical role in the country. As the capital of Iran and due to the centralist/sectoralist nature of Iranian political/administrative and socioeconomic structures that evolved with the advent of capitalism since the mid nineteenth century but were institutionalized planning since 1989 and further stimulated by increasing oil revenues (Amiahmadi, 1986), Tehran attracted most of the county`s cultural infrastructures leading to the great gap with other provinces regarding cultural development aspect.

CRIME RANKING ACROSS THE PROVINCES

Arnold Welfares says, security from both objective and subjective viewpoints means the lack of threats that endanger vital values and no fear against existing values (Belis, 1999). As the privative aspect of security has been more considered, security conveys conditions without threat, fear, damage and harm and existence of confidence and peace. Social security is also emphasized from privative viewpoint. For Fisher (1993), the social security, from privative approach, means a condition within which there is no fear, no compulsion and no external threat and public needs are well supplied. From viewpoint of Molar, social security has a direct link with loss of identity or any threat to the sense of place in the society. Considering this, for him, social security conveys a condition within which the traditional patterns of life such as language, culture, religious, national identity and tradition can be developed. Concerning social security, various studies have introduced different approach and indicators to evaluate social security in different geographical areas. According to the existing information, in this research, 16 variables have been considered to evaluate the social security across the provinces of country (Table 4). These variables were classified based on the latest statistical data from 1996 to 2002. Table 3 and 4 are the result of analysis using Morris method, which show the ranking of the provinces concerning the social security.

Table 3:	Ranking of the provinces according to the social security

Table 4:	Correlation coefficient between different variables regarding the social security in the provinces

Fig. 3:	Social security ranking in the provinces considering population indicator

Fig. 4:	Social security ranking in the provinces without considering population indicator

According to the Table 4, Zanjan province is on the highest level and Kerman province on lowest level of social security. Considering the population factor there is a considerable difference in the results so that the eastern Azerbaijan province is on 19th level without and on second level with this factor. This is also true about the province of Semnan to the extent that it is on 7th level with the population factor and on 27th level without this factor. From this point, the population can be recognized as an important factor which should always be considered in analysis part of such studies. Considering this factor, the ranking of social security aspect across the provinces can be classified into four levels of developed, developing, less developed and undeveloped provinces (Fig. 3, 4). Contrary to the previous ranking, the province of Tehran has the lowest level of social security and has been classified within the undeveloped provinces. On the contrary, the province of Kurdistan, which had the lowest level of cultural development, moved to the highest level of social security and defined within the developed provinces.

DISCUSSION

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Considering the results of analysis part, it is time to challenge the mentioned idea borrowed from developed countries. As explained, it says that where the society and region is culturally more developed, social security level is higher and vice versa. From the results, it is clear that this idea does not work in the same direction in Iranian context. In line with this, based on the Table 4, the correlation coefficient between cultural development and social security is 0.556. This means that the high cultural development can not be lead to the high social security in Iranian context. The direction is reverse so that those culturally more developed provinces, like Tehran, Khorasan, Fars... have less social security and those culturally less developed provinces, like Sistan va Baloochestan, Kurdistan, Iilam ... have higher social security. This can be figured out in the dispersion chart (Fig. 5) so that as the cultural development is increased the social security is decreased and vice versa.

The main reason of such reverse condition can be linked to the traditional way of life and the features of this culture which still exist in culturally less developed societies. In these societies, the life is mainly controlled by informal rules contextualized by ethnical beliefs and faiths and local conventions etc. These rules created a kind of social control on people`s behavior which alongside with the formal one adopted by the government resulted in a higher social security. On the contrary, those culturally more developed societies have lost the informal rules as a result of the new life style imposed by the wave of modernization. As Rephann (1999) indicated, one likely cause is the greater degree of anonymity and correspondingly lower lever of intimacy found in day-to-day contact. For Bell et al. (1990), this has been defined in line with the theory of deindividuation. According to this theory, when we feel we are an anonymous member of a crowd, our inhibitions against antisocial behavior are released. This is partly because we feel it is very unlikely that we will be identified and punished. Freudenburg and Jones (1991) refer to this as the density of acquaintanceship and argue that when the population becomes larger, more heterogeneous and more mobile, it is not as easy for residents to establish lasting interpersonal ties. This means that in such societies the first social control has been declined. As a result, the people are less under the bond of informal rules, thus, more vulnerable than other traditional societies to crime and violation. Therefore, the social security became weak.

From the above points, the following results and recommendations can be outlined for this research:

Fig. 5:	Dispersion chart between cultural development and social security factors

Table 5:	Cultural development and social security ranking of the provinces

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The correlation between cultural development and social security is in the reverse direction in Iranian context due to the centralized planning and policy adopted in the period of Pahlavid dynasty (1925-1979), which still the country is under the bond of this pattern of planning and the loss of informal rules in the culturally more developed provinces. In addition to these, it is worth to say that the economic factors-inequality and slow economic growth-significantly increase the rates of violent crime in the more populated cities.

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Considering the lack of informal rules in the culturally more developed provinces it is important to adopt some policies to facilitate and renovate traditional social inspection and individuals` trust of others in their community. This can be contextualized through public participation in decision making and democratic way of governing the place.