School of Public Health, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Am J Public Health. 2011 Feb;101(2):260-4. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.193896. Epub 2010 Dec 16.
Research on economic inequalities in health has been largely polarized between psychosocial and neomaterial approaches. Examination of symbolic capital--the material display of social status and how it is structurally constrained--is an underutilized way of exploring economic disparities in health and may help to resolve the existing theoretical polarization. In contemporary society, what people do with money and how they consume and display symbols of wealth may be as important as income itself. After tracing the historical rise of consumption in capitalist society and its interrelationship with economic inequality, I discuss evidence for the role of symbolic capital in health inequalities and suggest directions for future research.
健康领域的经济不平等研究在很大程度上分为心理社会和新物质两种方法。对象征资本的研究——即社会地位的物质展示以及其结构限制——是探索健康领域经济差异的一种未被充分利用的方法，可能有助于解决现有的理论两极分化问题。在当代社会，人们如何花钱以及他们如何消费和展示财富符号可能与收入本身一样重要。在追溯资本主义社会消费的历史崛起及其与经济不平等的相互关系之后，我讨论了象征资本在健康不平等中的作用的证据，并为未来的研究提出了方向。
