Investigating the Relationship of Economic, Social and Cultural Capitals with Fatalism in Isfahan

Abstract

Evidence indicates that beliefs such as fortune and misfortune or how getting daily bread are typical theological fatalism in terms of Iranian religion and Islamic culture. On the one hand, although it seems that economic problems are the main factor associated with the fatalism in fatalistic nations, studies illustrate that Iranian society have suffered from mistrust, lack of social participation, knowledge and so on. Moreover, cultural crises have been embedded with their daily life nowadays. Consequently, the question is raised in the mind of the author that the fatalism might have a complicated relationship towards economic, social and cultural capital since the mistrust reduces participation and then the wheel of economic will be stopped. As a result, socio-economic and cultural capitals could have influence on the fatalism. The aim of this study is to investigate the fatalism of citizens in Isfahan according to the benefit of economic, cultural and social capitals. The theories of Marx’s alienation and Durkheim’s excessive discipline are used to study the fatalism. On the other hand, Bourdieu's perspective is used for studying the economic and cultural capitals as well as evaluating the social class and the lifestyle. The survey research has been conducted on the 300 residents of the city. A cluster sampling method is used in this study. The questionnaire is used as a data collection instrument and the Pearson Correlation Coefficient; t-test and ANOVA are used for the data analysis. Finally, it can be concluded that education, economic and cultural capitals and the lifestyle can influence on the fatalism more than other variables.