Economy

Social capital is being considered as way to achieve sustainable rural development as far asthe development experts are concerned. It is argued that social capital make the achievement of sustainable development possible taking into consideration provided opportunities and major societies constants at different levels including micro and macro level. In other word, social capital not only affects development process but also it is affected by as well. It is argued that social capital as a very important theoretical tool is capable of investigating the role of social variables regarding sustainable rural development. Lack of sufficient attention to rural settlers as social capital is a major challenge as far as sustainable rural development is concerned. This in turn could facilitate planning trend regarding rural sustainability through participation of rural settlers. Based on the relevant studies attention to social capital could enhance the achievement of sustainable rural development. Moreover, the relationship between social capital and level of rural development could well be justified by space economy and spatial dimension. Explanation of the phenomena and the spatial organization are affected by interaction of space and activities. Spatial dimension could exemplify itself in social processes and relationships. In effect, function of space is affected by space, time and social and economic mechanisms. As such this study aims to find out the relationship between social capital and rural development. It further tries to come up with social capital pattern.

This study deals with analytical-descriptive research method based on both qualitative andquantitative methods. Sampling technique was random stratified sample. Based on physical location, distance, and number of households, six villages were selected from each class. Altogether, 18 villages were selected in the study area. Statistical society is composed of two groups that are local rural settlers (host community) and local authorities. Based on KMO test, social capital viability turned out to be 0:71. Moreover, Cronbach’s alpha coefficients used for evaluation of social capital in corresponding villages turned out to be 0.89. Social capital measures were selected through application of critical analysis over previous studies. In second phase, primary yardsticks and measures were screened in order to identify the prime social capital yardsticks with regard to sustainable development. Topsis technique was used for determination of social capital regarding level of development in sample villages.

Nowadays social capital is being considered as the most important development capital. As such, social capital with its spatial dimension is being known as a comprehensive strategy for achievement of social sustainability within sustainable development approach. It is because that the major objective of sustainable rural development based on social capital approach is promoting quality of life of local people, empowerment, capability formation, increase participation level as well as self-reliance, expanding rural communication network both in and outside of the villages and institutional development. This study suggests that there exist a relationship between social capital and level of rural development in the study area. It means that 63.5 percent of variation regarding level of development of the villages is explained by social capital. The magnitude of I index for determination of the corresponding spatial pattern based on social capital turned out to be 0.41. This figure compared with E (I) which is 0.03165 indicates that spatial pattern correspond with social capital of the studied villages incline toward multi pattern (concentrated and clustered). The highlight of this paper is first the endogenous nature of social capital and second confirmation of the past studies in this regard. Spatial pattern associated with social capital indicates that villages located in the center and in the proximity of large cities including Mashhad, Nishabur possess lower level of social capital. Heading toward the boundary of the province, the rate of rural social capital will increase.