مطالب

What broke out as the Arab Spring in Tunisia in 2010 stroke Egypt and shed its light on the Middle East, including Syria. During the first few days of demonstrations in Syria, the spring turned into a bloody fall and a full-scale civil war. Political-security crises and economic and social problems that had dominated the country during Assad's family rule left the state in deep defeat. Meanwhile, the arena of war turned into the scene of conflict between different political forces and their regional and international supporters, caused Syria to encounter immense foreign intervention. In this regard, this article attempts to figure out the answer to this question, "What are the causes for the Syrian state of failing during 2010-19?" The authors hypothesize that "the state in Syria has failed since the beginning of the protests due to persistent social, economic and political-security crises that led to the militarization of the country by the opposition and insurgent groups." The findings also indicate that the Syrian state faced historical crises after 2010 in economic imbalance and decline, demographic and environmental pressures, political-administrative corruption, and weak public services, which deepened after 2011, and it spread to other areas such as ethnic-religious violence.

Tourist destinations are selected by tourists based on various factors. One of the most important factors is tourist destination security. The study aims to investigate the role of security in the development of rural tourism. The methodology is descriptive-analytical. The statistical population includes 194 tourists from eight villages of Torqabeh and Shandiz County, which selected through the Cochran formula. A survey containing Likert- type scales were used for data collection. The reliability of the questionnaire was measured through Cronbach Alpha, which is acceptable. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS and Pearson Correlation test, One Sample T-test and Linear Regression, and VIKOR model. The results indicate that the security variable has a strong direct relationship with the tourism development variable (Coefficient = 0.713). In other words, security positively influences rural tourism development. In addition, the results of VIKOR model reveals that there is a different level of security for tourists in 8 tourist villages of the region; Jaghargh, Kang, and Abardeh villages are in good condition, but Noqondar, Anbaran, and Zoshk villages are at lower level in terms of tourism security and Zoshk village is at the lowest level in terms of tourism security that for the development of tourism in these villages should be considered by the authorities. 

Purpose- Due to its special geographical location in the arid and semi-arid climate belt of the world, Iran suffers from water scarcity and limited usable water resources, notably considering the population growth and increasing demand for water and food. High water consumption in agriculture as one of the main water use sectors is estimated as 90% of total water, thereby necessitating consideration of water conservation methods. However, there are a number of barriers to use the current water conservation practices. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the barriers to equipping agricultural lands with the new irrigation technologies in Shahrabaad rural district, Bardaskan city. Design/methodology/approach- This is an applied study in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method, carried out using the random sampling method. The sample size was 338 households in the research area which was determined using Cochran's formula. Data were collected based on field and library studies. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by university professors and experts. The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.78 using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Moreover, the TOPSIS fuzzy model was used to rank the villages in terms of the effect of barriers to using the new irrigation technologies, and SPSS software was used for analyzing the research questions. Findings: Results showed that the economic dimension was the most important barriers to using the new irrigation technologies. In addition, low-socioeconomic status of the farmers and small loans are the most prominent barriers to equipping agricultural lands with the new irrigation technologies in the research rural district. Research limitations/implications - unavailability of statistical information when referring to the agricultural jihad and the governor’s office, and completing the questionnaire, depending on the subject at the village level, is one of the main challenges of the present study. Practical implications - Given the specific research findings, it is necessary for agriculture and water policy-makers take serious measures concerning the incentive (low-interest and long-term loans, micro-land integration and the like) and punitive (imposing restrictions on traditional land users and stipulating other supports to change the irrigation method) instruments, because otherwise water restriction and the consequences of water scarcity will be challenging in  many areas and even may lead to a serious crisis. Originality / value: This study is prima facie significant in terms of statement of the reasons for the barriers to equipping agricultural lands with the new irrigation technologies from the users' perspective and then, in terms of a more detailed analysis of the research findings to change the implementation of traditional irrigation methods.

Purpose- The present study focuses on introducing ghetto tourism; the main objective of this study is to introduce some villages in Isfahan Province as ghetto tourism destinations with emphasis on religious minorities. Since the emergence of niche tourism needs the study of its place, the present study is designed to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Isfahan Province for the prosperity of ghetto tourism. Design/methodology/approach- To this end, SWOT and QSPM methods were used in this study. It is noteworthy that the data were collected through snowball sampling technique. The results of this study illustrate that Isfahan Province is strategically located in the aggressive area due to the internal and external factors affecting ghetto tourism, and strategies such as market development, concentric diversification, market penetration and product development can be used to boost rural tourism in Isfahan Province. Finding- According to QSPM results, it can be concluded that holding more conferences regarding the cultural bridge of Iran-Armenia-Georgia among the market development strategies, organizing the festival of culture of minorities among the concentric diversificationstrategies, and holding a tour of visiting the ghetto villages of Isfahan among the market penetration strategies have the highest priority for ghetto tourism development in Isfahan. And the proposed strategies do not differ much in terms of priority and attractiveness for product development.

Purpose- The growing attention to rural development issues has created a strong trend in related scientific communities, as over the last few years one can see the traces of this thinking in many relevant scientific trends. One of the most important relevant subjects was job creation using the resources available in rural areas in line with their industrialization and the emergence of agro-processing industries. Spatial distribution of rural industries, spatial justice and their fair distribution based on the distribution of rural settlements have been among the most important concerns in this field. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the distribution of agro-processing industries with a spatial approach in rural areas of Gilan Province.  Design/methodology/approach- This research is an applied one conducted in a descriptive-analytical method. The collected data were analyzed using the average nearest neighbor, multi-distance spatial cluster analysis, mean center and standard deviational ellipse. Results showed that industries in rural areas of Gilan Province have been located in clusters. Finding- That is, their sites were selected with an eye to favorable conditions such as proximity to cities, population centers and markets, access to infrastructure, proximity to political and decision-making centers, access to major roads, access to more raw materials and cheaper agro-processing industries. Such industries are often located in the counties of Rasht, Rudsar, Astar, Talesh, Lahijan, Langrud and Sowmehsara. Therefore, the officials in charge should make plans to establish agro-processing industries in a more scattered and diverse manner in Gilan Province.