Examining the Relationship Between Structural Social Capital and Economic Underdevelopment: A Qualitative Approach (Case Study: Ilam Province)

Abstract

This study aimed to explain how structural social capital influences the economic underdevelopment of Ilam Province and to identify the mechanisms through which this condition is reproduced within the province’s institutional and social context. This research was conducted using a qualitative approach based on the Grounded Theory methodology. The study population included local stakeholders, experts, policymakers, economic actors, and members of social institutions in Ilam Province who were selected through purposive and snowball sampling methods. Data were collected through 33 in-depth semi-structured interviews and 7 focus group discussions. Data analysis was performed simultaneously with data collection using open, axial, and selective coding procedures. To ensure the credibility of findings, triangulation, member checking, thick description, and constant comparison techniques were employed. The reliability of coding was assessed through inter-coder agreement, yielding an agreement coefficient of 82%, which confirmed the trustworthiness of the analytical process. The findings indicated that weak structural social capital—manifested in limited formal participation networks, institutional distrust, dominance of kinship relations, and weak bridging social capital—plays a central role in reproducing economic underdevelopment in Ilam Province. The paradigmatic analysis revealed that contextual conditions such as a state-dependent economy, administrative centralization, weak infrastructure, and closed ethnic structures, combined with intervening factors including unstable development policies and weak local governance, have led to strategies such as excessive dependence on the government, rent-seeking behaviors, human capital migration, and declining social participation. These processes ultimately contribute to structural lock-in, reduced investment, and the persistence of economic underdevelopment. The findings demonstrate that the economic underdevelopment of Ilam Province is not merely the result of limited economic resources, but is deeply rooted in weak institutional structures and insufficient structural social capital. Strengthening civil institutions, enhancing social participation, improving local governance, and expanding formal cooperation networks can provide the foundation for breaking the cycle of reproduced underdevelopment in the province.