Social Capital among Indian and Iranian Youth and their Families

Abstract: The social capital, conceptualized into different aspects, i.e. scope of social relations and level of social trust, was studied among 600 cases of Indian and Iranian students and their parents, in two cities of Chandigarh and Tehran, in India and Iran. The results showed that the scope of social relations in India was higher than Iran. One of the variables which could affect the scope of social relation network was the distance or closeness of the person with his relatives. Normally, in villages or small towns, the relatives live close to each other. It is this closeness factor which results in the increased interactions of relatives and neighbors. Contrary to this, in large or metropolitan cities, the closeness people’s with their relatives is not available to such an extent.