Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract The main goal of this research is to understand the level of environmental responsibility of employees and its relationship with social capital in Borujen city. The theoretical basis of the research is based on Putnam's theory. The research method is a survey with a researcher-made questionnaire tool. The research findings show that the environmental attitude of employees has a significant difference with their environmental behavior. At the attitude level, about 96% of employees, their level of responsibility is medium to high (with an average of 18.3); while at the behavioral level, the responsibility of about 95% of them is medium to low (with an average of 12.5). Social capital has a positive and significant relationship with environmental responsibility. Social capital indicators including trust, participation, interactions and social support have a significant relationship with environmental responsibility. Strengthening environmental responsibility requires creating social interactions in the form of associations, friendly relations and relations with colleagues. The focus of these interactions should be to preserve the environment

Abstract While the problem of social capital is getting more important in all social science disciplines, explaining the creation of social capital rises as an important debate. Trust is a constituting element of social capital and has great importance for its consequences. Robert Putnam, in a leading prominent book, two decades ago, explained trust as a consequence of associational life, which is now acknowledged as society-centered approach. However, institution-centered approached have tried to explain trust based on the quality of public institutions. We have applied a crossnational variable-oriented comparative research on 54 countries to evaluate the strength of these two approaches for explaining trust. Data have been extracted from well-known international databases of the World Bank, Freedom House, and World Values Survey. Our evidences and results imply that institution–centered approach is more capable of explaining trust. In conclusion, the implication of results for analyzing democracies, and two critical issues of legitimacy of democratic systems and degradation of social capital have been discussed.

Abstract Social networks are a combination of social relationships and trust is assumed to be one of the main features of social relationships. Distrust brings about lack of cooperation and chaos in society. As a result, the present research aims at creating and eroding trust in different network structures. As interactions are taken place in social relationships, the way in which we select other trustees can be influential in the formation of trust. The two important factors for agents to select their interaction trustees are: the intensity of trust in social relationships and the history of interaction. Thus, in the present research three strategies are applied for selecting trustees in an interaction and they are all based on trust in a relationship: selecting relationships with strong, medium and weak trust. Trustees’ responses are grouped under two headings: random and trust- based responses. To study precisely such a situation, agent- based modeling is used because it helps understand processes and mechanisms and even artificial experiments. In the two network structures, four types of status are designed for the model. Each status is run 300 rounds and in 100 time units. The model output was analyzed by the use of SPSS and Matlab soft wares. Findings indicate that agents with strong strategies have the most capability in developing trust than those with weak strategy. It is also impossible to accumulate trust in a relationship within networks which agents respond randomly. Conversely, in the networks that agents’ responds is based on trust, we witness trust accumulation in long term period. In comparison to the cluster network, trust in central networks is more likely to erode.

Abstract

Abstract : The theory of social capital is re-emphasis on the role of community and society-based groups in sustainable development. In this paper we try to survey the role of artistic and cultural clubs at universities in reinforcement of social capital among students. We also study the effects of social capital on increasing civil norms and decreasing deviant behavior. Putnam's approach to social capital is theoretical framework of this study. According to this theory, relations network, social trust and social co-operation are the most important indicators of social capital. Research method is based on survey by using questionnaire technique. Although, the results show that social capital of Tehran University's student(as control group) and artistic and cultural activists of universities of city of Tehran is not higher than average level, but later group have more social capital than formers. Also, the results represent that whatever the level of social capital increase, civil behavior increase and deviant behavior decrease.