Analyzing the Role of Social Capital in Entrepreneurship and Economic Development of Metropolitans under Conditions of State Sanctions (Case Study: Tabriz Metropolitan)

جغرافیا و توسعه فضای شهری

Article 8, Volume 4, Issue 2 - Serial Number 7, March 2018, Pages 137-149   

Document Type: Scientific-Research

DOI: 10.22067/gusd.v4i2.35818

Author

Isa Piri^*

University of Zanjan

Abstract

Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
As providers of general goods and economic development infrastructures, governments may face periodical crises caused by surplus accumulation or they could be placed under sanctions, preventing them from playing their common role. Large cities and metropolitans can be considered as geographical fields that play the significant role of pioneers in national development as well as interacting with the world economy (Piri, 2012). Given the presence of social, economic, cultural, and political complexities in such fields, the entire national and transnational developments are reflected in socioeconomic relations among metropolitans. Similar to metropolitans, social macrostructures have always involved dialectical relations. Circulation of capital inside the regional geography of metropolitans (Harvey, 1987; Piri, 2012) has surpassed local and national borders to reproduce itself, occupying vast fields considered as consumer markets for the products of its factories and manufacturers. Consequently, the nature of the capital and various economic sections become subject to a set of extensive developments. Social capital is the result of relationship among actors in frequent games (Piri, 2011). The central theme here involves the fact that through participating in a collective life, people could become members to various groups that reflect their own identity, norms, beliefs, and priorities, while shaping such norms themselves (Macinko & Starfield, 2011).
2. Methodology
The present inquiry is a descriptive-analytical research using field studies. Questionnaires were used as the research instrument with a sample population that included entrepreneurs and industrial managers in Tabriz. Using the Cochran formula, approximately 200 people were selected for the sample population. One-sample t-test was used in order to demonstrate the relationship between the study’s independent (social capital) and dependent (entrepreneurship and economic development) variables. Economic sanctions act as a change of context and the items corresponding to variables can be specified given how they act under sanctions.
3. Discussion
The nature of economic development in post-Keynesian metropolitans has been changed from the dominance of production atmospheres to consumer environments. Meanwhile, mass consumerism has been transformed into private consumerism. Through the perspective of post-modernist political economy, the evolution toward post-Fordism accumulation system is a turn from mass production and consumerism to flexible production and private consumerism.
The platform for mass, collective entrepreneurship is preceded by the participation of major stakeholders and shareholders of the city including the state, private sector, market, civil society, and local communities.
The following factors should be taken into account in providing the context for collective entrepreneurship:
• Legal requirements of sharing the benefits among members and shareholders
• Constant rehabilitation of skills and ongoing education (as creativity and entrepreneurship entails a creative destruction process, the continuous rehabilitation of the members’ skills is essential)
• Private and public consumption marketing (in order to continue their activities, social entrepreneurs require marketing in private consumer markets within geographical and cultural boundaries. Private consumerism is mostly the product of transition from Fordism to post-Fordism systems.)
Corporate and spatial branding (given the cultural and socioeconomic developments occurred through transition to post-Fordism, the activity success and the continuous profitability of collective entrepreneurship is preceded by the quality of the goods as well as the ability to compete in the market. One of the main approaches of marketing is corporate branding.)
Collective entrepreneurship could begin using location-based goods. Brands such as Tabriz Carpet, Rafsanjan Pistachio, Liqwan Cheese, Sar-daroud Pictorial Carpet, etc. have become famous due to their geographical titles. As a result, they could be utilized by collective entrepreneurs at the same geographical location.

4. Conclusion
Under economic sanctions, governments would rely on domestic socioeconomic, political, institutional, cultural, and geographical resources so that the damages caused by sanctions could be avoided by producing and circulating capitals. Sanctions could bring about problems such as economic collapse, threats against social solidarity, political tyranny, etc. which would lead to a more complicated, challenging economic condition; nonetheless, reliance on pioneering metropolitans in leading the national economy and offering the context to reproduce regional capitals is another approach which could provide dynamic resources inside the region along with increasing governments’ activism against sanctions and reducing the aforementioned damages. Metropolitans are highly capable of significant production, supply, and services to domestic and international consumer markets as well as offering a vast supply and demand market to manufacturers and entrepreneurs. Given the restrictions caused by sanctions, both the state and society would rely on their own local properties; here, social capital is one of the important elements of extracting and utilizing such properties in line with the economic development of metropolitans.
The results of the study show that connective, relevant social capital plays a role of utmost importance in entrepreneurship and economic development under sanction conditions; these capitals could act in flowing national capitals in metropolitan areas within a cultural framework of Iranian products and brands.

Keywords

Social capital; Entrepreneurship; Sanctions; Economic Development

References

1. پیری، ع. (1390). تبیین علمی حکمروایی مطلوب و کارآیی ارتباطی شهر (مطالعۀ موردی: نظام شهری استان آذربایجان شرقی). رسالۀ منتشرنشدۀ دکتری دانشگاه تبریز. تبریز، ایران.

2. تاجبخش، ک. (1389). سرمایۀ اجتماعی؛ اعتماد، دموکراسی و توسعه. (مترجم: حسن پویان و افشین خاکباز). تهران: نشر شیرازه.

3. جان، ف. ( 1392). سرمایۀ اجتماعی.(مترجم: غلامرضا غفاری و حسین رمضانی). تهران: نشر کویر.

4. ژان، ب. (1393). جامعۀ مصرفی؛ اسطوره‌ها و ساختارها. (مترجم: پیروز ایزدی). تهران: نشر ثالث.

5. فکوهی، ن. (1383). انسان‌شناسی شهری. تهران: نشر نی.

6. لش، ا. ( 1383). جامعه‌شناسی پست‌مدرنیسم. (مترجم: حسن چاوشیان). تهران: نشر مرکز.

7. Alonso, W. (1971). The economics of urban size. Papers in Regional Science, 26(1), 67-83.

8. Andrews, R. (2008). Civic engagement, ethnic heterogeneity, and social capital in urban areas: Evidence from England. Urban Affairs Review, 44(3), 428-440.

9. Baker, B. (2012). Destination branding for small cities (2nd ed.). Portland, CO: Creative Leap Books Press.

10. Besser, T. L. (2009). Changes in small town social capital and civic engagement. Journal of Rural Studies, 25(2), 185-193.

11. Carpiano, R. M. (2008). Actual or potential neighborhood resources and access to them: Testing hypotheses of social capital for the health of female caregivers. Social Science & Medicine, 67(4), 568-582.

12. Castells, M. (2006). The network society: From knowledge to policy. Washington, WA: Center for Transatlantic Relations.

13. Chu, W.-W. (2009). Can Taiwan's second movers upgrade via branding? Research Policy, 38(6), 1054-1065.

14. Chuang, Y.-C., & Chuang, K.-Y. (2008). Gender differences in relationships between social capital and individual smoking and drinking behavior in Taiwan. Social Science & Medicine, 67(8), 1321-1330.

15. Fanni, Z. (2006). Cities and urbanization in Iran after the Islamic revolution. Cities, 23(6), 407-411.

16. Folland, S. (2007). Does “community social capital” contribute to population health? Social Science & Medicine, 64(11), 2342-2354.

17. Franke, S. (2005). Measurement of social capital, reference document for public policy, research, development and evaluation, policy research initiative. Retrieved from http://publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/PH4-27-2005E.pdf

18. Harper R., & Kelly, M. (2003). Measuring social capital in the United Kingdom. Retrieved from https:// www.ons.gov.uk/ ons/ guide-method/ user-guidance/ social-capital-guide/the-social-capital- project/ harmonised-question-set.pdf

19. Harvey, D. (1985). Urbanization of capital. London, England: Basil Blackwell.

20. Harvey, D. (1989). Condition of postmodernity: An inquiry into the origins of cultural change. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

21. Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press

22. Henderson, V. (2000). How urban concentration affects economic growth. Retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/18840/multi_page.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y:

23. Huang, J., Maassen van den Brink, H., & Groot, W. (2009). A meta-analysis of the effect of education on social capital. Retrieved from http:// www.tierweb.nl/ assets/ files/ UvA/ Jian%20 Huang.%20 A%20 Meta-Analysis% 20of% 20the% 20Effect%20 of%20 Education%20 on% 20Social%20 Capital.pdf: https:// Econ Papers.repec. org/ RePEc: :wpaper:22

24. Ishihara, H., & Pascual, U. (2009). Social capital in community level environmental governance: A critique. Ecological Economics, 68(5), 1549-1562.

25. Jones, N. (2010). Environmental activation of citizens in the context of policy agenda formation and the influence of social capital. The Social Science Journal, 47(1), 121-136.

26. Maru, Y. T., McAllister, R. R. J., & Smith, M. S. (2007). Modelling community interactions and social capital dynamics: The case of regional and rural communities of Australia. Agricultural Systems, 92(1), 179-200.

27. McLuhan, M. (1962). Global village. Torento, Canada: Toronto University Press.

28. Mohan, J., Twigg, L., Barnard, S., & Jones, K. (2005). Social capital, geography and health: A small-area analysis for England. Social Science & Medicine, 60(6), 1267-1283.

29. Nakamura, R. (1985). Agglomeration economies in urban manufacturing industries: A case of Japanese cities. Journal of Urban Economics, 17(1), 108-124.

30. Quigley, J. M. (1998). Urban diversity and economic growth. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(2), 127-138.

31. Sabatini, F. (2009). Social capital as social networks: A new framework for measurement and an empirical analysis of its determinants and consequences. The Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(3), 429-442.

32. Schneider, J. A. (2007). Connections and disconnections between civic engagement and social capital in community-based nonprofits. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 36(4), 572-597.

33. Schumpeter, J. (1934). The theory of economic development. London, England: Cambridge University Press.

34. Snelgrove, J. W., Pikhart, H., & Stafford, M. (2009). A multilevel analysis of social capital and self-rated health: Evidence from the British Household Panel Survey. Social Science & Medicine, 68(11), 1993-2001.

35. Suzuki, E., Takao, S., Subramanian, S. V., Komatsu, H., Doi, H., & Kawachi, I. (2010). Does low workplace social capital have detrimental effect on workers' health? Social Science & Medicine, 70(9), 1367-1372.

36. Titeca, K., & Vervisch, T. (2008). The dynamics of social capital and community associations in Uganda: Linking capital and its consequences. World Development, 36(11), 2205-2222.