The relationship between economic development and social capital: An analysis on voluntary organizations in Kayseri

In this study, it was tried to explain the concept of social capital which was frequently used in recent years and role of social capital in regional economic development. Firstly the concept of social capital was handled with both theoretical and empirical dimensions. For the purpose of measure of social capital level, it was informed about performed survey on the sample which consist of persons who were members of voluntary organizations in Kayseri and nonmembers but tied in voluntary organizations. The survey was prepared in the format of quintet likert-scale following up the indicators which was used to measure level of social capital in international literature. The indicators consist of confidence, membership to formal and informal networks, helping each other and common collaboration and it was designed the social capital index as combination of three indexes. In addition it was asked to members about their demographic characteristics such as age, education, religious behavior, self confidence, frequency of following local media, voting in elections, lifetime and occupation sector and the relationships between social capital and demographic characteristics was tested with the method of chi-square. The directions of relationships between social capital and demographic characteristics were obtained with the correlation analysis. It was found that there was a linear relationship especially between social capital and education level and the feeling herself valued.Key Words: Social Capital, Trust, Collective Action, Networks, Measurement of Social Capital And Non-Governmental Organizations.