Youth, social capital and volunteering

social capital has been defined as the quality and attribute of a given society and group that promotes the capacity for collective and voluntary of mutual problems. This paper drawing on Stones differentiation of structural and normative aspects in social capital clarifies those aspects which could promote voluntary attitudes and behaviors amongst young people. methodological strategy adopted is based on both a causal comparative survey to examine volunteering on a behavioral level and also a cross sectional survey to study voluntary attitudes and demographic variables on both levels, on a subjective level and drawing on results from a representative sample of 318 students in Allameh Tabatabaee University, voluntary attitudes were divided into five major factors: Ideal, /value laden, radical, protesting, altruistic and particularistic. Findings suggest that normative aspects of social capital (trust and reciprocity), directly correlate with all dimensions of voluntary attitudes. On a behavioral level the sample of youth who had volunteered for helping people harmed in Barn’s quake enjoyed a higher level of social capital compared with those not volunteered. Comparing the two groups indicates that volunteers are those who enjoy a higher radical, protesting attitudes and have less trust in governmental institutions. Findings confirm arguments posed by Edwards and Foley (1997) where in democracy is conceptualized as institutionalization of mistrust.