The Impact of Production Cooperatives on Social Capital: A Study of Poultry Cooperatives in Kermanshah County

Cooperatives، established through a unification of human and economic capital within their members can lead to strengthening of the social capital. The main purpose of this descriptive – correlational research was to investigate the influence of membership in production cooperatives on the level of social capital. The statistical population for the study consisted of: poultry producers in cooperatives and private sector (N=216). One Hundred and sixty nine samples were selected through Stratified Random Sampling method. The sample size was determined using Bartlett et al (2001) table of sample sizes. Based on the results، the level of social capital within cooperatives was significantly higher than that within the private producers. The variables of: trust to strangers، intrapersonal trust، and information exchange within the social system، social cooperation and informal relations'' network were the most conspicuous differentiators between cooperatives and private producers، meaning that members of production cooperatives، in terms of possession of these components stood at a higher level. The results finally indicated that the cooperatives help strengthen and promote social capital. In total، the social capital of production cooperatives amounted to a higher figure than that of the producers in the private sector.