The Role of Social Capital in Rural Development

جغرافیاوتوسعه ناحیه ای

Article 2, Volume 8, Issue 1 - Serial Number 14, July 2010   

Document Type: scientific-research article

DOI: 10.22067/geography.v8i14.8995

Authors

Gholamreza Miri^* ; Jafar Javan; Hassan Afrakhteh; Sadollah Velayati; Hamid Shayan

Abstract

The meaning of development has been changed by the end of the modern era and beginning of the postmodern age. One of the meanings that are formed in present age is "Social Capital". Along with considering the meaning of Social Capital, the methods of planning have been also formed with en emphasis on people’s participation and stable development and importance of indexes such as measurement of Social Capital, stability, flexibility and participation so that every region has freedom of thought and action to administrate economical politics by considering relative advantages. One of development views that have been formed in the mentioned frame is "General Rural Development." therefore, three indexes proposed by Putnam namely confidence, participation and nets has been measured and used in relation to measurement of Social Capital. The results and 78.4% of the points obtained between 106 and 125 suggest that amount of Social Capital is average in rural areas of Poshte Aab of Zabol. Additionally, the highest variance among dimensions of Social Capital has been also related to net dimension and it suggests a high of net and social unions in the villages under investigation. Generally, it can be concluded that there is a significant relation between Social Capital and Rural Development and all parameters have an effective role. If average Social Capital of studied area is supported and optimized, it can play an important role to enhance the rural development of Poshte Aab of Zabol.

Key words: Development, Rural development, Social participation, Poshte Aab