Evaluation of the Role of Social Capital in Reduction of Earthquake Disaster consequences in Sojasrood County Khodabande Township

Social Capital as a multidisciplinary concept has been emphasized in recent decades in social and economic analyses on rural development; and emphasizes the role of local social structures such as reciprocity, networks and local institution, attitude, cohesion and trust. The aim of this study is the evaluation of the role of social capital in reducing vulnerability of rural settlements that originated from earthquake disaster. The reliability of used data has been calculated 0.875 by Cronbach’s, appha. For this purpose, from a total number of 3510 settled households in Sojasrood County, 180 cases were selected as a sample by using modified Cochran formula. To achieve this objective, descriptive- analytical method based on a questionnaire among heads of households have been used; and for data analysis statistical methods such as Spearman correlation, one sample T test, Friedman and ANOVA tests were used. The results of statistical analysis indicate that the levels of all dimensions of social capital among sample households are lower than desirable level. So that, social capital in the aspects of local networks and social cohesion is even lower than the average. The analysis of the most important aspects of social capital, effective in reducing seismic vulnerability, indicates that from the perspective of the respondents, the local networks and institutions, participation and cooperation and trust indicators having negative standardized coefficient values of -0.331, -0.219 and -0.123 respectively, have had the most effect in reducing Vulnerability and the indicators of people attitude (0.163) and social cohesion (0.239) have had the lowest impact on reducing earthquake Vulnerability in sample rural.Key Words: