The study of relationship between religion and social capital in rural communities (Case study from villages of Ilkhchi)

Social capital is referred to the one aspect of the development that recently has been known and is based on trust، solidarity، cooperation mentality and participation. One of the main functions of the religion is its effect on relationships and interaction between people and groups. So the purpose of this study is investigation of relationship between religious believes and social capital in rural communities. The statistical society of this study are all habitants of villages of Ilkhchi part. The sample of this study included 446 subjects whom were selected as cluster randomly. The main hypothesis of this study was existence relationship between religious believes and its components (morality، believes- rituals) with social capital of villages and its components (social trust، social solidarity، and social participation). The tool of this study were social capital questionnaire and Islamic religious believes test. Method of the study was descriptive correlation coefficients and multiple regression analysis is used for data analysis. The findings showed that there is positive relationship between religious believes and social capital (p<. 05) as well as between components of religious believes and social capital so can be concluded that religious believes can be a good predictor for social capital. Findings of this study can be used by rural development planners in order to codify an Islamic and native pattern in social developing of vilages