Social Capital and Health Inequality in European Welfare States

254 Pages·2013·1.278 MB·English

by  Mikael Rostila (auth.)

Social Capital and Health Inequality in European
Welfare States
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Social Capital and Health
Inequality in European
Welfare States
Mikael Rostila
CentreforHealthEquityStudies(CHESS),StockholmUniversity/Karolinska
Institutet,Sweden
Palgrave
macmillan
©MikaelRostila2013
Foreword©IchiroKawachi2013
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-0-230-29343-4
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To my children Juni and Jack, my wife Shirin,
my mother Hillevi, and my father Reino
In memory of Irma Kaca, 1925–2011
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Contents
ListofFiguresandTables x
Foreword xv
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Thehealthconcept 6
1.2 Healthinequalities 7
1.3 Socialcapitalandhealthinequalities 8
1.4 Thewelfareconcept 9
1.5 Welfareregimes 11
1.6 Overviewofthebook 13
2 TheoreticalFoundationsofSocialCapitalinHealth
Research 18
2.1 Theoreticaldefinitionsofsocialcapital 20
2.2 Classificationsofsocialcapital 24
2.3 Socialcapitaltheoryinhealthresearch 26
2.4 Towardsadefinitionofsocialcapitalinhealthresearch 28
2.5 Thecontributionofaresource-basedtheoryofsocial
capitalforhealthresearch 36
2.6 Conclusions 40
3 SocialCapitalandWelfare:DoUniversalWelfareStates
“CrowdOut”orStimulateSocialCapital? 42
3.1 Thewelfarestateandinformalsocialcontacts 43
3.2 Thewelfarestateandformalsocialcontacts 46
3.3 Thewelfarestateandsocialtrust 49
3.4 Thewelfarestateandsocialresources 52
3.5 Conclusions 58
4 SocialCapitalandHealth:MechanismsandEmpirical
Findings 61
4.1 Individualsocialcapitalandhealth 63
4.2 Collectivesocialcapitalandhealth 66
vii
viii Contents
4.3 Socialcapitalasahealth-promotingfeatureofwelfare
states 68
4.4 Thedarksidesofsocialcapitalinrelationtohealth 69
4.5 Someexamplesofpreviousstudiesonindividualand
collectivesocialcapitalandhealth 72
4.6 SocialcapitalandhealthinEuropeanwelfarestates:
Ecologicalassociations 75
4.7 Conclusions 82
5 HealthInequalitiesbyEducationinEuropeanWelfare
Regimes:TheContributionofIndividualSocialCapital 86
5.1 Introduction 86
5.2 Dataandmethods 90
5.3 Results 93
5.4 Conclusions 106
6 HealthInequalitiesBetweenEuropeanWelfareRegimes:
TheContributionofCollectiveSocialCapital 112
6.1 Introduction 112
6.2 Dataandmethods 119
6.3 Results 122
6.4 Conclusions 128
7 SocialCapitalandHealthInequalityinthe
Social-DemocraticSwedishWelfareState 133
7.1 Introduction 133
7.2 Dataandmethods 143
7.3 Results 149
7.4 Conclusions 157
8 TheDarkSidesofSocialCapital:Homophilyand
ClosureofImmigrants’SocialNetworksintheSwedish
WelfareState 161
8.1 Introduction 161
8.2 Dataandmethods 169
8.3 Results 176
8.4 Conclusions 180
9 ConcludingDiscussion 184
9.1 Welfarestatesandsocialcapital 185
9.2 SocialcapitalandhealthinEuropeanwelfarestates 190
9.3 SocialcapitalandhealthinequalityinEuropean
welfarestates 191
Contents ix
9.4 Thedownsidesofsocialcapitalinrelationtohealth 195
9.5 Policyimplications 196
9.6 Concludingremarks 199
Appendix1:MethodologicalConcernsandLimitations 202
Notes 206
References 209
Index 227