مطالب

Purpose: One of such changes is the rural sprawl and its physical-spatial consequences in rural areas and their surrounding lands which has led to land use change in agricultural lands, gardens and less planed physical changes. Design/methodology/approach: This study was conducted in a descriptive-analytical method using field works, regular interviews and monitoring of satellite images and GIS maps. This study sought to identify and explain the natural consequences of rural sprawl in the physical area of villages and their surroundings during a 20-year period from 1995 to2016. The study area included 24 large rural settlements around Hamadan County with an average rural population of 2,800 people in areas with farmlands and gardens. Finding: The findings showed that rural sprawl has resulted in unplanned proximity and intermingling of rural-urban functions in rural settlements, physical changes in surrounding rural settlements, changes in diversity and composition of rural land uses, changes in physical structure of rural areas, and increased number of single-family residential units and villas. Research limitations/implications: Difficulty in gathering data about the rural areas’ physical changes and access to data and documentation of some organizations and interviews with some groups were among the challenges of the study. Practical implications: Management based on settlement systems of suburban towns and villages in the form of rural-urban ties and metropolitan area of Hamadan (in macro level), integrated management based on legal limits of the villages and their immediate areas, regulatory and more planned intervention through compliance of the uses with the structures and functions of the villages were some of the recommendations in the managerial and planning level. Originality/value: There have been a limited number of studies on emerging concepts and phenomena in the villages surrounding the metropolises and big cities. Therefore, it was necessary to conduct a study and discuss the consequences of rural sprawl as a phenomenon in villages round cities.

This article deals with general issues related to the impact of globalization processes on national languages. The work is founded on theoretical research methods based on the inductive method of Material Selection. The author sees the reasons for globalization in strengthening integration between countries and national cultures. The formation of cross-cultural ties, as the phenomena of intercultural communication and their manifestation in the vocabulary indicates both the positive impact of globalization on the Russian language and the need for a deeper study of this phenomenon in connection with the negative impact on the spiritual and moral state of the ethnic group. As a result, the author came to the conclusion that language is, first of all, a way of inheritance of social-practical and spiritual experiences of people, the environment of existence of both an individual and an entire ethnic group, as a carrier of national culture.

This study aims at comparing the economic relations of Japan with Iran and with Saudi Arabia. The comparison of these two relations is important as Iran and Saudi Arabia are leading exporters and Japan is a large importer of crude oil in the world. After a brief overview of the history of these two relations, the criteria of trade complementarity, i.e. Trade Potential Naive Assessment, Cosine Measure and Drysdale's Index are taken into account. Further, FDI in Iran and Saudi Arabia are studied based on the indicators of FDI value, FDI contribution to GDP, and the International FDI Performance Index. These indices indicate that in spite of the long aged Japan-Iran economic relations, these relations have been reduced in recent years both in trade and in foreign investment. Since, Japan needs to maintain dynamic and sustainable relations with its two main energy-providing countries; it has recently made direct investments in oil and gas extraction in Saudi Arabia in return for purchasing oil from this country. Comparatively, considering the high trading capacity between Iran and Japan, it would be time for the two countries to negotiate on the export of crude oil to Japan in return for expanding economic ties in joint ventures such as co-participating in the construction of extraction platforms and refineries in Iran, as well as gas stations in Japan and selling petroleum products on the Japanese (and East Asia) market.

Iran’s foreign policy toward international organizations has always oscillated between divergence and convergence, depending on the status of the country in question and the statesmen's point of the view. This study aimed to examine the status of international organizations in Iran’s foreign policy. A divergent approach to international organizations was adopted during 1981-1988 and 2005-2013. This believe in a domination system in the world, and try to change the status quo and the fundamental rules of the international system. One could argue that the domination of this approach in Iran’s foreign policy undermined the national interests and security. On the other hand, since 1979, it has been revealed that whenever Iran has had a convergent interaction with international organizations (i.e., 1979-1980 and 1988-2005); it has helped Iran's national interest and security. Furthermore, cooperation with international organizations in various fields has provided opportunities for political, economic and cultural ties of Iran.