Investigating the Relationship between Social Capital and Political Consumerism among Isfahan University Students

This study seeks to investigate social factors influencing political consumerism. Political consumerism is influenced by people’s individual qualities on the one hand, and by social qualities, on the other. Political consumerism is closely related to goods and services of consumption policies. In other words, political consumerism is defined as power relation and how resources are used and allocated. Political consumers choose services and goods based on their political moral values and not because of the good or service per se. Political consumers are social players, who consciously engage in the economy and the market and their behavior affects social relations. In this regard, many studies indicate that a relationship exists between consumerism and social relations, particularly in issues associated with identity and culture. Therefore, this study’s hypothesis is that individuals with a higher share of social capital tend to have higher political consumption. Similarly, individuals with stronger social relations with others and more trust in people and other institutions tend to engage in political consumerism more than others. Of course, one should not overlook the fact that control variables such as gender, income and education also influence individuals’ political consumerism. Accordingly, main research objectives are:1. Measuring respondents’ share of social capital2. Analyzing the amount of political consumption and its dimensions among respondents3. Analyzing the relationship between social capital and political consumerism among respondents Methods and Materials: Survey method is applied in this study. Population includes all undergraduate students at Isfahan University from all disciplines in the educational year 2011-2012. Research sample included 250 individuals who were selected by cluster sampling method so that 250. However, only 215 remained after discarding spoilt questionnaires. We applied two questionnaires including Author-designed political consumerism questionnaire; to evaluate political participation. This questionnaire is designed in the manner of Likert scale, containing 6 questions, according to political consumerism model designed by Setwell and Hugh (Setwell and Hugh, 2003). In this study, reliability coefficients of this scale were found to be 0.71 using Cronbach’s alpha. Studying test validity based on similar tests and calculating internal consistency coefficient show that this questionnaire enjoys high reliability and validity. The study was divided into three levels of behavioral, motivational and habitual. This scale is an instrument for evaluating individuals’ political consumerism and each question is set on a scale of 1 (completely agree) to 5 (completely disagree). Social capital questionnaire; this questionnaire contains questions about dimensions of social capital and social networks. These dimensions were extracted from existing theories about social capital (Putnam indices) and questions were designed for the scales. Using Cronbach’s alpha, reliability coefficients for social trust (15 questions) and social networks (21 questions) dimensions were found 0.75 and 0.71 and 0.73 for the entire questionnaire (36 questions), respectively. In the preliminary study, findings showed that there was no need for deleting any of the statements. This scale is an instrument for evaluating individuals’ social capital and each question was scored on a scale of 1 (completely agree) to 5 (completely disagree) and 3 questions in each dimension and 6 questions in total from the 36 questions are inversely scored. Discussion of Results & The purpose of this study was to theoretically and experimentally analyze the effect of social capital on political consumption among students of Isfahan University. Results indicated a significant relationship between social capital and interest in value, ethical and political considerations of commodity consumption. This corresponds with the theories of Micheletti, John and Klein, Andersen and Tobiasen, Stoll and Hooghe, Dawson and Valendorf., which have shown that social trust and social associations in people with a high social capital have considerable effect on their actions and leads to their tendency toward boycotting or encouraging purchase of necessities according to their own political, cultural and ethical values. In other words, there appears to be significant differences among students under study in terms of social capital and this manifests itself in their political consumption. In general, findings indicate a positive relation between social capital and political consumerism. Therefore, research hypothesis is confirmed. In other words, individuals with a higher social capital consume politics more than those with lower social capital.