ادراک و کنشگری سیاسی؛ مطالعه ادراک کنشگران ستادهای انتخاباتی از فرآیند انتخابات (مطالعه موردی: انتخابات ریاست جمهوری سال 1400 شهر گرگان)

هدف مقاله شناخت ادراک کنشگران ستادهای انتخابات ریاست جمهوری از فرآیند انتخابات و اجزاء آن است. این کنشگران که بر اساس انگیزه ها و علل مختلف در ستادهای انتخاباتی مشارکت می کنند، تاکنون به طور مشخص موضوع مطالعه قرار نگرفته اند. پرسش اصلی مطالعه این است که کنشگران ستادی چه درکی از انتخابات و اجزاء آن دارند؟ روش پژوهش با توجه به ماهیت موضوع، گراندد تئوری است. داده ها از طریق مصاحبه عمیق گردآوری شدند و سپس در فرایندی سه مرحله ای کذگذاری و در پایان نیز حسب الگوی برگرفته از داده ها، تجزیه و تحلیل شدند و مقوله های اصلی و نیز کلان بدست آمد. یافته های پژوهش نشان داد مفهوم هسته ای که می تواند فهم مناسبی از ادراک کنشگران ستادی را از انتخابات تبیین کند »ادراک دوگانه « است. یعنی کنشگری این افراد متاثر از ادراکی یکسویه و یکدست از انتخابات نیست. لذا نمی توان کنشگری آنها را به سادگی فهم نمود. مفهم »ادراک دوگانه « نخستین بار در اینجا مطرح می شود و وجه نوآورانه مقاله است.

perception and political activism; a study of the perception of campaign activists of the election process (case study: presidential elections of 2021 in the city of gorgan city)

the purpose of the article is to understand the perception of presidential campaign activists of the election process and its components. these activists, who participate in election campaigns based on various motives and reasons, have not been specifically studied so far. main questionthe main question of the study is what understanding do campaign activists have of the elections, the process, and its components? research method:given the nature of the subject, the research method is grounded theory. data were collected through in depth interviews, then transcribed in a three stage process, and finally analyzed according to a model derived from the data, and macro categories were obtained. findings:the findings showed that the core concept that can explain a proper understanding of campaign activists' perception of the elections is dual perception. that is, the activism of these people is not influenced by a one sided and uniform perception of the elections. therefore, their activism cannot be easily understood. the concept of dual perception is introduced here for the first time and is the innovation of the article. introductionelectoral campaign headquarters and their actors, as one of the most influential entities during electoral periods in iran, have received relatively little scholarly attention despite their direct interaction with the target audience mdash;voters. a portion of these individuals typically engage in activism within candidates' headquarters during critical electoral moments. alongside the core members of campaign headquarters, who are often affiliated with local political parties and groups, some participants join these headquarters without any party affiliation. such individuals may also possess hidden, unspoken personal motivations.the central question of this study is: how do the actors within campaign headquarters perceive the electoral process and their activism in the context of iran's presidential election campaigns? understanding the perceptions and motivations of these actors provides deeper insights into the nature and dynamics of activism at this level. this understanding is valuable not only for candidates but also for party actors, the media, and researchers in the field, aiding in better management of campaign headquarters and their participants.the innovative aspect of this study lies in its focus on the role of these individuals in electoral campaigns, which contributes to the development of new literature in the field of election campaign studies. the selection of gorgan city in golestan province, iran, as the case study is due to the high voter turnout in this city during previous presidential elections, which ranked among the highest in the country. theoretical frameworkthe theoretical framework of this article includes the theories from which the practical indicators of the article were derived. perception:perception is the process by which individuals interpret and make sense of sensory data received from the environment (goldstein, 2019: 23). this process involves the selection, organization, and interpretation of sensory inputs that provide a meaningful understanding of the surrounding world. therefore, perception is not simply a direct reflection of received stimuli, but is shaped by a number of variables (palmer, 1999: 43). activismaction is an intentional, meaningful, and judgmental action that is realized under the influence of the actor rsquo;s perception. (mohammadi asl, 2011: 46). behind every action, there is a hidden meaning, and by interpreting the meanings hidden in the actions, one can understand political relations, phenomena, and events (manouchehri et al., 2008: 59 61). electoral behaviorthe scientific study of electoral behavior has resulted several important theories: political sociology theory, political economy theory, and political psychology theory. political sociology theory: it states that ldquo;people think politically as they are social rdquo; (karimi maleh and zolfaghari, 2019: 34 37) and what encourages people to participate in elections is their social, environmental, economic, and cultural conditions (rezvani, 2007: 151). political economy theory: in this model, logic and reason replace feelings and emotional encounters. even political parties seek to win elections and gain power. for supporters, profit also finds a new meaning for voting (karimi maleh and zolfaghari, 2019: 49 53). political psychology theory: according to this theory, electoral preferences are the result of a combination of psychological factors, such as the characteristics of the voter, accumulated experiences mdash;particularly the experience of participating in previous elections mdash;and the feelings derived from the outcomes of such participation. these factors, along with the voter rsquo;s evaluation of the political system and elites, as well as prior knowledge of the candidate and their personality traits, shape voting behavior (karimi maleh zolfaghari, 2019: 40 41). research method:the research was conducted using the grounded theory method. grounded theory emphasizes the inductive process of collecting and analyzing data in creating or developing hypotheses or theories related to the subject (khanifar and moslemy, 2016: 18 19). the network method was also used for sampling (tracy, 2015: 289). after the twelfth interview, sampling reached theoretical saturation (no new information was obtained about concepts, categories, or their relationship, and the necessary answers to the questions were also obtained) and the interviews were stopped. then the data were also analyzed using the three stage coding method: 1 open coding: 2 axial coding: 3 selective coding. (khanifar and moslemy, 2016: 217). findingsa careful study of the participants rsquo; responses showed that the core concept of the perception of the presidential election process among these individuals is represented in the phrase ldquo;dual perception. rdquo; the duality in perception has imposed its effect on individuals rsquo; perception of the election process as follows. the duality of one rsquo;s own perception of the election versus the understanding of others rsquo; perception of the election: this situation manifests itself in the form of a conventional perception of oneself, but an unconventional perception of others. the duality in motives affecting the perception of the election: this duality presents in the conflict between internal motives such as personal experience, personal tendencies, family, and trusted individuals, and external factors such as generational changes, political and party tendencies, and objective conditions of society. duality in the motivations for activism in the election campaign: here, moral and personal motivations such as helping and serving the people, electoral excitement, and a sense of effectiveness are placed against utilitarian motivations such as gaining profit and gaining power. duality in the perception of one's competence as a president: statements such as yes, i am capable and competent versus statements such as no, i am not competent affect the nature of people's perceptions. perception of the characteristics of the supported candidate and the characteristics of the rival candidate: the supported candidate generally has positive characteristics, while the negative characteristics belong to the rival candidate. perception of the main activism rsquo;s motivations of people in the campaign: duality of the motivation of excitement resulting from competition and elections, defeating the opponent, and retaliation for past failures in return for serving and helping the people.the figure below shows the pattern obtained.figure 1: components of the dual perception of campaign activists according to the final model, understanding the nature and actors of the 1400 gorgan city election campaigns depends on considering the motives and factors that were obtained in this study. the most important motives and causes affecting the perception of actors are as follows:socio political motives: the excitement resulting from the competitive and electoral nature of the election and party tendencies (rational action). these motives are in line with the political sociology theories of activism.status motives: such as gaining credibility, identity, and independence, and being seen and liked, which also goes back to psychological and personality motives. theories that propose emotional and emotional action, as well as the theory of political psychology, explain these types of motives. understanding actions in this perspective depends on a precise understanding of individuals' motives for action. material and profit driven motivations:the pursuit of individual material gain, as observed in the responses of actors, ultimately ranked third among the influential motivations of actors (rational action). these types of motivations align with perspectives that emphasize the element of rationality and calculative behavior in action, such as political economy theory. other motivations:such as providing services (value based action) and motivations resulting from education and family influence (traditional action) were ranked last in the opinion of the respondents. in this section, motivations are discussed that are explained both by the political psychology theory of activism and by the theory of political sociology. although staff activists paid less attention to this issue, the greater attention of female activists to this factor indicates its effectiveness, especially the effectiveness of the family on female staff activists. this type of activism confirms the continuation of the traditional type of activism alongside rational and emotional activism, which should not be neglected.in summary, it can be said that the activity of the headquarters in the iranian presidential elections, with an emphasis on the elections for the thirteenth presidential term in 1400, is in harmony and alignment with the three explanatory theories, with the difference that priority is given to political sociology theories. keywords: perception, activism, election headquarters, presidential election of 2021 iran. referencesgoldstein, e. b. (2019) sensation and perception (11th ed.). cengage learning.haan, marco (2004) promising politicians, rational voters, and election outcomes. journal of spanish economic review, 6(3), 227 241.karimi maleh, ali, zolfaghari, vahid. (2019) an introduction to the political sociology of voting behavior. tehran: negah moaser. (in persian).khanifar, hossein, moslemmi, nahid. (2016) principles and foundations of qualitative research methods. tehran: negah danesh. (in persian)manouchehri, abbas, et al. (2008) approach and method in political science. tehran: samt publications. (in persian)palmer, s. e. (1999) vision science: photons to phenomenology. mit university press.rezvani, mohsen. (2007) analysis of electoral behavior (case study: ninth presidential elections). marafat journal, 123, 149 166. (in persian)tracy, sarah j. (2015) qualitative research methods. translated by hossein khanifar tahereh moniri sharif. tehran: mehraban book publishing house. (in persian)