بررسي رابطه سرمايه اجتماعي و مصرف گرايي سياسي در بين دانشجويان دانشگاه اصفهان

Investigating the Relationship between Social Capital and Political Consumerism among Isfahan University Students

مصرف گرايي سياسي به عنوان يكي از انواع مشاركت، از شاخص‏هاي توسعه اجتماعي و فرهنگي در كشورها به‏شمار مي‏رود. يكي از گروه هاي عمده جامعه كه شركت آنان در روند اداره جامعه و توسعه سياسي، اجتماعي و فرهنگي ضروري به نظر مي رسد، دانشجويان هستند. مصرف گرايي سياسي دانشجويان كه بزرگترين گروه جمعيتي در كشورهاي در حال توسعه و مسوولان اداره جامعه در آينده محسوب مي شوند، اهميت خاصي براي ثبات سياسي و پويايي جامعه دارد. هدف از نگارش اين مقاله بررسي رابطه ميان سرمايه اجتماعي و مصرف گرايي سياسي دانشجويان در دانشگاه اصفهان است. روش تحقيق پژوهش در جمع‏آوري و تجزيه و تحليل داده ها از طريق رگرسيون چندگانه به روش پيمايشي است. اين مطالعه بر روي 215 نفر از دختران و پسران دانشجوي دانشگاه اصفهان انجام شده است. براي جمع آوري اطلاعات، از پرسشنامه استفاده شده است كه اعتبار آن، به روش صوري، و پايايي آن، به كمك آماره آلفاي كرونباخ سنجيده شده است و داده‏ها از طريق نرم افزار SPSS16 تحت محيط ويندوز تجزيه و تحليل شد. با تقسيم سرمايه اجتماعي به دو متغير (اعتماد اجتماعي و شبكه هاي اجتماعي)، به همراه در نظر گرفتن سه وجه از مصرف گرايي سياسي؛ يعني رفتارها، انگيزه ها و عادات مشاهده مي شود كه همبستگي هاي معناداري ميان ابعاد سرمايه اجتماعي و ميزان مصرف گرايي سياسي پاسخگويان وجود دارد كه در اين ميان، مصرف سياسي، بيشترين تاثير را از انسجام اجتماعي از مولفه‏هاي شبكه‏هاي اجتماعي و كمترين تاثير را از اعتماد تعميم يافته از مولفه‏هاي اعتماد اجتماعي مي پذيرد.

Introduction This study seeks to investigate social factors influencing political consumerism. Political consumerism is influenced by people’s individual qualities on the one hand, and by social qualities, on the other. Political consumerism is closely related to goods and services of consumption policies. In other words, political consumerism is defined as power relation and how resources are used and allocated. Political consumers choose services and goods based on their political moral values and not because of the good or service per se. Political consumers are social players, who consciously engage in the economy and the market and their behavior affects social relations. In this regard, many studies indicate that a relationship exists between consumerism and social relations, particularly in issues associated with identity and culture. Therefore, this study’s hypothesis is that individuals with a higher share of social capital tend to have higher political consumption. Similarly, individuals with stronger social relations with others and more trust in people and other institutions tend to engage in political consumerism more than others. Of course, one should not overlook the fact that control variables such as gender, income and education also influence individuals’ political consumerism. Accordingly, main research objectives are: 1. Measuring respondents’ share of social capital 2. Analyzing the amount of political consumption and its dimensions among respondents 3. Analyzing the relationship between social capital and political consumerism among respondents Methods and Materials Survey method is applied in this study. Population includes all undergraduate students at Isfahan University from all disciplines in the educational year 2011-2012. Research sample included 250 individuals who were selected by cluster sampling method so that 250. However, only 215 remained after discarding spoilt questionnaires. We applied two questionnaires including Author-designed political consumerism questionnaire; to evaluate political participation. This questionnaire is designed in the manner of Likert scale, containing 6 questions, according to political consumerism model designed by Setwell and Hugh (Setwell and Hugh, 2003). In this study, reliability coefficients of this scale were found to be 0.71 using Cronbach’s alpha. Studying test validity based on similar tests and calculating internal consistency coefficient show that this questionnaire enjoys high reliability and validity. The study was divided into three levels of behavioral, motivational and habitual. This scale is an instrument for evaluating individuals’ political consumerism and each question is set on a scale of 1 (completely agree) to 5 (completely disagree). Social capital questionnaire; this questionnaire contains questions about dimensions of social capital and social networks. These dimensions were extracted from existing theories about social capital (Putnam indices) and questions were designed for the scales. Using Cronbach’s alpha, reliability coefficients for social trust (15 questions) and social networks (21 questions) dimensions were found 0.75 and 0.71 and 0.73 for the entire questionnaire (36 questions), respectively. In the preliminary study, findings showed that there was no need for deleting any of the statements. This scale is an instrument for evaluating individuals’ social capital and each question was scored on a scale of 1 (completely agree) to 5 (completely disagree) and 3 questions in each dimension and 6 questions in total from the 36 questions are inversely scored. Discussion of Results & Conclusions The purpose of this study was to theoretically and experimentally analyze the effect of social capital on political consumption among students of Isfahan University. Results indicated a significant relationship between social capital and interest in value, ethical and political considerations of commodity consumption. This corresponds with the theories of Micheletti, John and Klein, Andersen and Tobiasen, Stoll and Hooghe, Dawson and Valendorf., which have shown that social trust and social associations in people with a high social capital have considerable effect on their actions and leads to their tendency toward boycotting or encouraging purchase of necessities according to their own political, cultural and ethical values. In other words, there appears to be significant differences among students under study in terms of social capital and this manifests itself in their political consumption. In general, findings indicate a positive relation between social capital and political consumerism. Therefore, research hypothesis is confirmed. In other words, individuals with a higher social capital consume politics more than those with lower social capital.