The Role of Religious Centers in Building Solidarity Among Citizens with Social Capital Approach (Case Study: Ferdowsi-eh City - Shahryar Town)

Abstract

In the present urbanization, especially in developing societies which­ lack of trust and isolation affected the lives of the majority of citizens, efforts for social alliance and raising social capital in the cities are of most important ­ goals of planners and urban managers. For this purpose, by relying on its material and spiritual means, religion has a role to play in raising the sense of belonging and social trust and­ most of all, it can create social cohesion and alliance among citizens. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of religious centers, especially mosque, in building alliance among citizens with the social capital approach in the mosque of the city of Ferdowsi-eh, Shahryar town. The research community consists of all citizens of the city of Ferdowsi-eh­. The tool ­ of data gathering ­ was questionnaire to do this research, 341 questionnaires were distributed among citizens according to the size of the determined sample through the Morgan table. For data analysis, ­modeling structural equations with partial least squares approach (PLS) has been utilized through smartpls.2 software used. The results of the research showed that the created model was suitable for establishing alliance among citizens, and the proposed factors are well able to measure ­ the proposed concept. ­The factor loads obtained for the observed variables were higher than 0.5 and the constructions ­ had a good validity and reliability; also, based on the model created through the structural model, ­ trust and participation had a significant and positive correlation with social alliance, while social cohesion had no significant relationship with social alliance.

Keywords

• social capital
• participation
• social cohesion
• social alliance
• ferdowsi-eh city