The effects of social capital on the participation of villagers in the development of economic plans and sustainable rural livability in the central district of Jiroft County

Nowadays, the sustainable viability of rural areas is greatly influenced by the social capital of the villagers. In other words, improving the dimensions and indicators of social capital provides the basis for achieving life facilities in line with sustainable rural livability. Social capital is one of the fundamental pillars for the participation of villagers in the development of economic plans and as a capacity to improve sustainable rural living, which creates the ground for the constructive participation of villagers. In other words, social capital plays an important role in the participation of villagers in developing economic plans for rural settlements. For this reason, social capital is considered a solution in rural areas to solve economic difficulties, which is effective in the participation of villagers in the process of economic development of villages. Therefore, the value and necessity of the subject require us to get a deeper scientific understanding of the effect of social capital and the participation of villagers in the development of economic plans and sustainable rural livability in the study area.

The current research is quantitative in terms of its practical purpose, in terms of the method of carrying out survey research, and in terms of the nature of the data. In this research, the effective and effective indicators of the research were analyzed based on the hypothesis and the conceptual framework using a descriptive-analytical method. Also, the method of data collection was library and field methods. The statistical population of the research includes the number of 178 inhabited villages in the central part of Jiroft city based on the results of the census of Iran Statistics Center in 2016. To determine the random sample size, 30 villages were randomly selected to fill out the questionnaire at the village level. It should be mentioned that based on the "central limit theorem," the number of samples larger and equal to 30 from each community will be sufficient due to the normality of the distribution. Thus, the sample size calculated for random sample households based on the "Cochran" formula with a confidence level of 95%, a pre-estimated variance of 0.25 (0.5*0.5), and a desired probability accuracy of 5%, the number of 352 households was calculated. The quorum was not found to complete the questionnaire since the number of sample questionnaires in several villages, according to the method, compared to the size of the households in the villages. Therefore, the number of random sample household questionnaires was increased to 400 households. Also, AMOS software was used to analyze the questions to enter the model and the structures. The measurement of the research indicators was in the form of Likert Scale options ranging from 1 very low to 5 very high.

The research results revealed that among the indicators of social capital, the index of social cohesion had the lowest average of 2.83, and social organization, with a value of 3.42, had the highest average. The average indicators of participation of villagers in the development of economic plans are equal to 2.85. Among the dimensions of sustainable rural livability, the economic dimension has the lowest average, 3.15, and the environmental-ecological dimension has the highest average, 3.59. In addition, the findings of the communication model of the research showed that the fit of the coefficients of the social capital path had an effect of 1.39 on the participation in the development of economic plans and on sustainable rural livability by 0.54. Based on this, the findings revealed that the path coefficient of the variables has a good fit. Thus, social capital can positively affect the villagers' participation in the development of economic projects.

The literature and research findings revealed that social capital is an important factor for participation in the development of rural economy plans. In such a way, the formation of social groups by official organizations such as agricultural jihad and semi-official organizations such as Barkat Foundation and the like has effectively expanded the network, social relations, and social trust among the villagers. The result is increased social participation and participation in economic projects in the studied villages. Therefore, the improvement of the dimensions of social capital has led to the participation of villagers in the plans and programs of economic development of rural settlements. This has resulted in the improvement of environmental-ecological, social, and economic dimensions of sustainable livability in the studied area. In general, it can be said that although the improvement of social capital indicators in the studied area has led to the participation of villagers in the development of various agricultural and non-agricultural economic projects, the local administration must provide clear training and awareness in the field of development of various rural economic plans and gain social trust to create the ground for their participation in such plans and in order to improve the dimensions of livability.