IJE Advance Access published online on July 28, 2004
International Journal of Epidemiology, doi:10.1093/ije/dyh013
© 2004 by International Epidemiological Association
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1 Faculty of History and Fellow of St John's College, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: srss{at}cam.ac.uk.
Three perspectives on the efficacy of social capital have been explored in the public health literature. A ‘social support’ perspective argues that informal networks are central to objective and subjective welfare; an ‘inequality’ thesis posits that widening economic disparities have eroded citizens’ sense of social justice and inclusion, which in turn has led to heightened anxiety and compromised rising life expectancies; a ‘political economy’ approach sees the primary determinant of poor health outcomes as the socially and politically mediated exclusion from material resources. A more comprehensive but grounded theory of social capital is presented that develops a distinction between bonding, bridging, and linking social capital. It is argued that this framework helps to reconcile these three perspectives, incorporating a broader reading of history, politics, and the empirical evidence regarding the mechanisms connecting types of network structure and state--society relations to public health outcomes.
Point-Counterpoint
Health by association? Social capital, social theory, and the political economy of public health
2 Development Research Group, The World Bank, and Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, USA
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