the relationship between religiousness and social capital in the city of najafabad, isfahan

intordaction : religion and its concepts have been a main as well as unique source in producing social capital. the development of social capital, as the raw material for a civil society, depends on certain variables including religion and religious culture. in spite of numerous researches on social capital and its factors, there are few systematic studies undertaken to examine interrelationships between degree of religiousness and social capital at the individual level. therefore, number of questions about the role of religion in social capital formation has remained unanswered. the purpose of present study is to examine interrelationships between the degree of religiousness and social capital.   method: data for the study comes from a structured questionnaire administered by a face-to-face survey interview. the study has been a cross-sectional survey of a random sample of adults aged 15 year- old and over in the city of najafabad, isfahan. the sample was selected through a multi-stage cluster sampling technique among 244 respondents.   findings: the findings show that there is no significant difference between men and women, single and married, employed and unemployed regarding the degree of social capital. also, there is a significant and direct relationship between religiousness and social capital.   couclusion: the results of the study have been on the same wavelength as some theorists such as durkheim, putnam, fukuyama and coleman, suggested a direct association between the degree of religiousness and social capital.