The role of social capital in empowering rural community for reducing environmental hazards: the case study of Khodabandeh, Iran

Social capital approaches consider the empowerment of societies against disasters, which enable rural communities to recover from the negative effects of hazards. Social capital is a mediator for collective action and can help people build common property resources. Not only can social capital improve access to natural resources, it can also improve access to physical capital. Using the descriptive and analytical survey, this article analyzes the impact of social capital on managing an earthquake in the villages of Khodabandeh in northwest of Iran. The findings indicate that according to the single sample T test as well as the opinions of local authorities and household heads. The components of attitude and cohesion have the strongest direct effect on reducing vulnerability at the level of households and rural authorities, the component of trust has the strongest indirect effect, and the network component has no indirect effect on either level.