Social Capital Analysis of Members of the Rural Development FundCase Study: Rural settlements of Qasr-e Qand County

Considering the essential role of social sustainability in achieving the objectives of sustainable rural development in the territory As well as the importance of social capital and its indicators in the sustainability of economic structures and organizations, this study aimed to analyze the amount of social capital among members of rural development funds of Qasr-e Qand county. This study is an applied research and its research method is descriptive-analytical. The statistical population of this study includes all members of Rural Development Funds in 30 target villages of Qasr-e Qand county with 1763 members that through random combination sampling and Cochran formula, 340 members were considered as sample population. The research data were obtained through library and field studies and analyzed by SPSS software using one-sample t-test and Pearson correlation. The findings of this study show that the amount of social capital among members of Rural Development Funds is (3.1) moderate. At this stage, the index of trust (3.3) is in the most appropriate situation and the index of social participation (3.2) (especially women's participation) and the impact of support structures (2.8) are in the weakest situation. Also, the results of Pearson correlation test indicate the existence of a positive and significant internal correlation (Sig = 0.000) of four indicators of social trust, social participation, support structures and social cohesion among members of development funds in rural settlements of Qasr-e Qand County. Therefore, it is necessary to provide rural good governance with appropriate policy and cooperation of rural development agencies and support structures, especially the Alavi Foundation for Members' Trust, Cohesion and Community Participation, in the future to see the development and productivity of rural development funds at the level of rural settlements of Qasr-e Qand county.Key words: Social Capital, Development Fund, Empowering Project, Qasr-e Qand County