Sociological Analysis of the Relationship between Ethnic Identity and Civic Participation in the City of Ilam

The present research with a sociological approach studies the relationship between ethnic identity and civic engagement in the city of Ilam. The research methodology is survey and data collection tool is questionnaire. The statistical population includes all male and female people higher than 15 years old in the city of Ilam based on census in 2006. According to Cochran sampling, 400 people were selected by the method of stratified sampling. And in the theoretical issues,the ideas of scholars such as Robert Putnam, Habermas-Shiltz and Geertz’s theory of evolution of public fields and archaism and modernism perspectives were used. The main question focuses on the fact that,why Ilami citizens have less participation in civicand regional activities than that of ethnic affairs? The results of this study indicate that ethnic identity and meta- ethnic social capital, gender and age influence on forming civic engagement.