The cultural capital and the participation of members of environmental NGOs

Environmental issues caused by profit-making behavior of humans with nature on the one hand, and the need to carry out climate change adaptation programs on the other hand, as well as the inability of the governmental executive bodies to fully implement the programs, make it important for the broad participation of all groups, including non-governmental environmental organizations. Generally speaking, participation is influenced by various factors, one of which is utilizing cultural capital. The aim of this article is to sociologically analyze the impact of cultural capital of members of non-governmental organizations on environmental participation. The research method was survey and questionnaire method were used to collect data. The statistical community of the research was formed by all the members of environmental non-governmental organizations in Tehran, Iran. The sample size of 376 people was selected using the relative random sampling method and SPSS software was used for data processing and analysis. The results of the present study showed that the cultural capital and participation of most of the respondents is in the "average level and more" and with the increase of cultural capital and each of its dimensions separately, the participation increased. It also showed that the members with cultural capital were able to use creative mechanisms in the following cases. have a role: creating incentives for the participation of people and investors, implementing symbolic programs with the aim of promoting, transferring environmental knowledge and education, facilitating, demanding, empowering, increasing interaction with society, influencing the government and local communities, etc. From the results of this research, it can be concluded that environmental non-governmental organizations can play a role in creating sustainable fields among people and can be good promoters for building environmental issues at the community level.