چكيده لاتين :
Introduction
Development in social and economic foundations of welfare states after the World War II, resulted in more divers human lives, in the sense that nowadays every social individual and group can be differentiated from others due to variations in life places, cosmetics, clothing, arts and aesthetics, selection of entertainment and methods of spending leisure time (Gibbons, 2002 and Giddiness, 2004). Lifestyle is a point of intersection of construction and action, because it is, on the one hand, related to the power of actors in selection and, on the other hand, effects on the structure of this selection. Lifestyle is a result of all selections that everyone does for him or herself. It is most of the time self-evident, meaning that everyone introduces themselves to the world by their lifestyle and it provides young individuals with an opportunity to make transactions with social structure and conform to this structure or make changes in it. Accordingly, the reality of concurrent experiences of freedom and social limitations has become properly manifest in the notion of lifestyle (Zokaiei, 2007, p 102). The situation of lifestyle in Iran is an indication of evolution and change, as if lifestyle is a promise of social modernization. Diversity of lifestyles is an evolution in collective unconsciousness. Meanwhile, elements of religion has a main role in selecting lifestyles. Religion puts people in a situation to not only compare their lifestyle with others, but also to control their consuming culture and lifestyle (Bakak, 2002, p 177). Although the effect of religion on lifestyle is changeable in various social fields, it has sociological value. This has been observed in countries where religion is weak within the public sphere. With a wide spectrum of metaphysical and moral values as well as a set of traditional behaviors, religion can play a constructive role in making and changing lifestyle. One of the prevalent arguments in the field of sociology of religion is to address secularization and its expressions within society in contemporary world. “Carol Dibbler” studied secularization in three different levels of religion, individual and social. In his opinion, at religious level, secularization includes intra-religious transformation that lead to more individual mundane. At individual level, it decreases religious inclusion and undertaking and at social level it leads to separation of social structures and function of social institutions (Shojaieizand, 2001, p 144). Insufficient and improper patterns of development in a society such as Iran (Shojaieizand, 2006, p 20) makes the issue of secularization even more complicated. The present article is a brief introduction to the issue of secularism As it is expressed in the lifestyles of the youth.
Material & Method
This is a survey research. Method of gathering data is questionnaire, with Likert Spectrum as its measurement base. Statistical population of the study includes all young residents of Isfahan whose total number was 551653 in the year 2006.
The method of sampling was “Quota sampling”, which was based on municipal areas of Isfahan and age of participants (between 15 and 29 years old). Isfahan Municipality has divided the city into 14 districts. We distributed the questionnaires according to the percentage of young residents in each district proportionally. Moreover, each area was divided into north, south, west, east and central sectors and determining streets and alleys. According to Cochran Formula, sample size was calculated to be 385.
Discussion of Results & Conclusions
Main focus of sociologists of religion is on religion and its function in human society. Religion helps increase collective agreement about content of social requirements and therefore provide values that are useful for putting perspective of societyʹs members into certain pathways and supports requirements of social solidarity. In this role, religion helps create systems of social values that are contiguous and integrated. Durkheim states that common religious beliefs and accompanying customs have such important role that any society needs a common religion. He claims that the reason of most social disorganizations in modern societies is undermining of the belief system and following only individual and private interests.
The results of the study indicate that at personal and social levels our society is full of holy religious symbols, i.e. religious and legendary personalities like Imams. People respect these sacred figures. Therefore, religion is important for young people and religious experiences are valuable and thus religious beliefs are in a suitable level. So we cannot say that Iran goes towards a perfect secularization. In other words, at the level of religious symbol our society is not secular and is religiously orientated. Religion has been accepted as an instructional guide in daily life among people. In institutional view, however, people are independent from religious institutions, particularly political institutions. But in this level, secularization follows a slow trend. In Iran secularization means intellectualization, specialization, structural- functional differentiation, bureaucracy, and monotony of micro social systems. In this sense secularization is very important because all people, especially the youth are affected by modernization and rely on their personal deduction of religion.
Generally, it can be said that Islamic revolution in 1979 and the subsequent establishment of the Islamic Republic System led governmental leaders to reconstruct cultural and political spheres on the basis of this revolution, in the hope of making a society based on Islamic morals.
Since more than two decades ago, young citizens have been under internal and international pressures. On the one hand, they are exposed to local forces, programs of Islamic development and national identification with Islam. On the other hand, however, they are influenced by global forces and personal identification with other institutions. Although the efforts of officials is based on training of young citizens in accordance with Islamic values and norms, a considerable section of Iranian youth are in some areas of social life has another definition for acceptable norms and “good life”.
