[Measurment and ranking of social capital in the townships of Isfahan province]

ABSTRACT

Social capital is one of the concepts in social sciences which during the short time, less than two decades, not only has been populared in academic environments as a scientific term, but also it could arrive into the level of policy-making. The importance of the concept is up to high level that there is a special act about social capital in the fourth program of economic, social and cultural development. Also, social capital is called as an desired characteristic in the document of Iranian development for the year of 2025. But, how is the situation of social capital in the Iranian society? This article, that is extracted from a survey research with a provincial approach and carried out in 2006, try to answer the question. The main target of the study is measuring and ranking of social capital in 20 townships of Isfahan province. The data are gathered by interview based on a standardized questionnaire. The sample size are 4739 cases who have been selected on the basis of a quota method by sex, age group and region. The results have revealed that in some subdimensions such as institutional trust, trust towards family members, friends and acquintances, security feeling, social participation and social mediation are in better situation than the others that consist generalized trust, the new pattern of participation and civil engaging of citizens in social life. The most important result shows that Isfahan city, as the center of the province, accompanied by city of Khomeinishahr are located in the lowest rank of the social capital hierarchy in comparison with other townships