Investigating the impact of structural adjustment programs on creating social inequality (case study: production units of Arak city)

Authors

1 PhD student of Iranian Sociology, Ashtian Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashtian, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Ashtian Branch, Islamic Azad University, Ashtian, Iran.

10.22034/jgeoq.2024.333064.3605

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to investigate the impact of the structural adjustment policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund on social inequality. In this research, after reviewing the theoretical and experimental background of the research, the dimensions of the main variables obtained from the theoretical framework were evaluated using structural equations. The research method is cross-sectional at this time and in the city of Arak, the Delphi method, which was measured with the questionnaire tool in the production units of Arak as the effectiveness measurement unit. The results obtained from the research variable modeling test showed that the privatization variable has 87% on the social rank of social inequality; 75.1 percent on the local mentality of social inequality; 94.7% had an effect on the social capital of social inequality and 77% on the social role of social inequality. The variable of economic liberalization and the creation of a free currency market had a 55.7% effect on the social rank of social inequality, 54.9% on the social capital of social inequality, and 59.4% on the social role of social inequality, but it did not have a significant effect on the positional mentality. The variable of non-payment of subsidies is 54.1% on the social rank of social inequality; 47.6 percent on the local mentality of social inequality; 52.9% had an effect on the social capital of social inequality and 51.2% had an effect on the social role of social inequality.

Keywords