IJE Advance Access originally published online on July 28, 2004
International Journal of Epidemiology 2004 33(4):674-680; doi:10.1093/ije/dyh200
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IJE vol.33 no.4 © International Epidemiological Association 2004; all rights reserved.
Commentary |
Commentary: Social capital, social class, and the slow progress of psychosocial epidemiology
Department of Family and Community Health Nursing and Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, Suite 645, 655 West Lombard Street, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA. E-mail: cmunt001@umaryland.edu
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Simon Szreter and Michael Woolcock are to be congratulated for their effort to clarify the theory underlying the use of ‘social capital’ in social epidemiology.1 This is one of the ways in which scientific knowledge advances. Particular credit is due to Richard Wilkinson and his US collaborators2,3 for rescuing the income inequality hypothesis, promoting genuine social constructs and generating a series of heuristic hypotheses on the relationships among income inequality, social cohesion, and health. Robert K Merton has pointed to this type of creativity as one of the engines of disciplinary progress. That is, contrary to the conventional wisdom,4 criticism is not the only engine of disciplinary advance; indeed, an excess of criticism thwarts the development of innovative methods, concepts and models. It is harder to launch innovative hypotheses, as Wilkinson and his collaborators did a few years ago,2,3 than to criticize them. However, criticism is also an essential part
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The ‘material’ versus ‘psychosocial’ debate: ontological monism and epistemological indeterminism |
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Social capital as poor terminology |
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The case for ‘social capital’: cultural capital and productivity |
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A different look at Joseph Chamberlain: On social capital, imperialism, and public health |
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Beyond ‘ignoring politics’: The political uses of social capital scholarship |
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Are scientist administrators the engine of public health melioration? |
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Was lack of social capital the cause of excess mortality among African Americans during Chicago's Heat Wave? |
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Social capital and the slow progress of psychosocial epidemiology |
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Summing up: scientific progress, ideology and psychosocial epidemiology |
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