Book Review: INEQUALITY IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD

The article critically examines the applications of the concept of social capital in Iran. It argues that just as the concept gained in popularity among social researchers, political pundits and even elites in Iran, It has also descended into chaos, losing its analytical utility. The article will briefly go over the history of the idea of social capital in the west as its critiques. Then it will turn to the Iranian literature on the concept, particularly focusing on their problematization, analytical frame and policy recommendation. What this article focuses on is the gap that has emerged between problematization, the analytical tool, and the policies and strategies of the suggestions proposed in these works. In an attempt to explain the problems and transformations of Iranian society. These researches tend to discuss poverty, inequality, structure of government and the changes of economic, social and political relations, while they have not been able to provide an appropriate frame work and conceptual tool based on Social Capital . And develop conceptual tools appropriate to such an analysis. This article argues that this confusion is not simply due to the ignorance of the researchers but mainly related to the ambiguity of the concept of Social Capital itself.