English abstract
This study aims at identifying the role of voluntary work in building and developing social capital in the Sultanate through the following objectives: • Identify the respondent's practice of voluntary work through: identifying the respondent's experience, voluntary participation and its forms, knowledge of voluntary work and its sources and the respondent's voluntary motives. Study the volunteer's level of social capital through: identifying the dimensions level of social capital represented in creating social relationship network, community trust, social participation, and social cohesion. Also, identify the level of Bonding Social Capital and Bridging Social Capital. Identify the relationship between the practice of voluntary work and the social capital through: studying the relationship between the volunteer's position in the association, its forms, the number of voluntary projects, and forms of volunteering, and between social capital. Verify the hypotheses of the study through: defining the impact of the gender, marital status, and educational level on the social capital. Also, identify the impact of electronic means of communication on the dimensions of social capital. To achieve these goals, the study relied on the methodology of descriptive analysis, based on a quantitative measurement of the characteristics of the phenomenon. It relied on the purposive sampling of those who practiced voluntary work by using snowball sampling. The main findings of the study were:
. 1. High level of social capital among the volunteers.
2. The study shows the presence of Bonding Social Capital and Bridging Social Capital among the volunteers. The Bonding Social Capital is still strong, which indicates that the contribution of voluntary work in the development of Bridging Social Capital is still not enough.
3. The level of social capital differs in terms of the type and level of education among the volunteers.
4. The volunteer's use of electronic means of communication affects the level of social capital among the volunteers.
5. The study found out a significant conclusion which is voluntary work plays an important role in building and developing social capital in the Omani society.
