The Role of Megamalls and Local Stores in the Local Social Capital of Tehran Citizens

Based on the conceptualization of James Coleman and Robert Putnam, interpersonal social capital speaks about trust-based relationships as well as reciprocity with non-virtual social networks. Indeed such social relationships take place in spaces where the ecosystems of human groups exist. Accordingly, the various urban spaces as the dominant human ecosystem in the present world can play an important role in the creation and development of social capital, especially of the interpersonal type of social capital. Therefore, this paper focuses on study the role of megamalls and local shops as different urban spaces in the types of social capital of Tehran citizens. The statistical sample of the present study was 416 people from three shopping complexes located in Tehran the capital city of Iran and local shops within 500 m of these megamalls. These three megamalls and commercial complexes are: Palladium megamall in district 1, Ekbatan megamall in district 5 and Kian megamall in district 17 of Tehran city. Also, respondents were selected in megamalls and local shops using a systematic random sampling method. The information was collected through systematic interview. The findings of the study show that shopping from megamalls has a negative effect on bridging social capital with ratio of -0.17 and has a direct effect on bonding social capital with ratio of 0.15 also bridging social capital effect with 0.24 ratio on bonding social capital. On the other hand, however, purchasing from local shops with a coefficient of -0.15 indicates a direct decreasing effect on bonding social capital. In other words, the shopping from megamalls decrise of bridging social capital. According to social network literature bridging social capital based on week tie social networks, namely the social networking of individuals with acquaintances, intimate friends, distant relatives, etc., can practically provide bridge between different networks. Conversely, due to the family pattern of shopping in megamalls, bonding social capital based on strong tie social network increases