Shortt S E D
Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Queen's University, Kingston, Ont., Canada K7L 3N6.
Health Policy. 2004 Oct;70(1):11-22. doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2004.01.007.
This paper summarizes current knowledge about social capital and its application to health policy. There is a consensus that social capital is a characteristic of social groups, rather than individuals, and is born of shared experience which fosters mutual trust and reciprocity. It is a collective resource that may accumulate over time and facilitates the accomplishment of objectives that would otherwise be unlikely. The theoretical articulation of social capital remains under-theorized, and its measurement is subject to considerable debate. Health researchers, searching for a pathway to explain the adverse health outcomes associated with income inequality, as well as to understand the results of multi-level analyses that demonstrate an independent etiological role for community of residence, may find social capital an attractive notion. Despite professions of interest, the utility of social capital for health policy formation remains problematic; however, as a theoretical paradigm for policy it may have particular appeal to exponents of the "Third Way".
本文总结了关于社会资本及其在卫生政策中应用的当前知识。人们达成的共识是，社会资本是社会群体而非个人的特征，它源于共同经历，这种经历促进了相互信任和互惠。它是一种集体资源，可能会随着时间积累，并有助于实现那些否则不太可能实现的目标。社会资本的理论阐述仍未得到充分理论化，其衡量也存在相当大的争议。卫生研究人员在寻找一种途径来解释与收入不平等相关的不良健康结果，以及理解多层次分析的结果，这些分析表明居住社区具有独立的病因学作用，他们可能会发现社会资本是一个有吸引力的概念。尽管宣称有兴趣，但社会资本在卫生政策形成中的效用仍然存在问题；然而，作为一种政策理论范式，它可能对“第三条道路”的支持者具有特别的吸引力。
