An Analysis of the Status of Social Capital and Factors Affecting it in Miankoh District of Ardal County by Using Structural Equation Modeling

Statement of the Problem: 

Social capital was initially defined as the value of resources embedded in social relationships with others. It was then adjusted to the study of public behavior and attitudes of individuals towards the public sphere. This adaptation was pursued by changing the conceptualization of society as being determined by the geo-spatial structure defined by the structure of interpersonal relationships. Understanding this concept in society and factors affecting it is essential for formulating development policies in society.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the social capital status and factors affecting it in Miankoh District of Ardal County using the statistical approach of structural equations.

The research method in this study was descriptive-analytical and its purpose was applied. To collect the data, documentary and field methods were used. A sample of 254 individuals was selected by stratified random sampling in the study area. Finally, structural equation modeling was used to answer the research question.

The results showed that social capital in the study area was moderate and among the constituent indicators, social trust, and network quality explained the hidden variable (social capital) more than other indicators. Investigation of the independent variables affecting social capital showed that education (0.39) had the most influence on the dependent variable. So, this indicates the importance of education in improving social capital and points out the serious attention of officials to education in the study area. In total, the independent variables explained 0.24 of the variance of the dependent variable.

Innovation: 

Although social capital is as important as other capitals, it has received less attention. Despite the fact that two decades have passed since the serious attention of the scientific community to social capital,  there is still controversy in this regard. Accordingly, the approval and deepening of social capital require further evaluation and investigation of different communities. According to the local characteristics, this concept may have different interpretations in different cultures. On the other hand, little attention to the recognition of social capital as a concept affecting the science of planning is one of the challenges facing Iranian villages. Therefore, given that the rural areas of Iran have expanded into thousands of subcultures in the geographical area of Iran, lack of attention to social capital is a major challenge for the development of these areas. Accordingly, a comprehensive study of social capital in the geographical area of rural areas of Iran seems to solve this challenge for planners.