Social capital and farmers' leadership in Iranian rural communities: application of social network analysis

• Published in: Journal of environmental planning and management Vol. 66; no. 5; pp. 977 - 1001
• Main Authors: Moghfeli, Zohreh, Ghorbani, Mehdi, Rezvani, Mohammad Reza, Khorasani, Mohammad Amin, Azadi, Hossein, Scheffran, Jürgen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 16.04.2023; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: adaptive capacity; administrative management; Attachment; bridging links; Cooperation; Farmers; farmers' network; Leadership; Links; Network analysis; pistachios; Productivity; quantitative and qualitative methods; Rural areas; Rural communities; Social capital; Social interactions; Social network analysis; Social networks; Social organization; Villages
• ISSN: 0964-0568; 1360-0559; 1360-0559
• DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2021.2008329

This study aimed to analyze the role of social capital and leadership in improving the adaptive capacity of Iranian pistachio farmers by using Social Network Analysis (SNA). The results indicate that the studied network is not a dense network, and there are few reciprocal and face-to-face relations among farmers. The findings also illustrate that in all cooperative links, there were no noticeable bridging links among the farmers and their tendency toward bonding links, indicating less bridging social capital at the three studied villages. The nature of relationships in social networks will improve if the quality of communication between individuals in a network and actors from other networks and villages is enhanced. This can increase the productivity of social networks and lead to higher quality resources, better support, development of useful information between networks and improvement in farmers' adaptive capacity.