Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity, Flinders University, Australia.
Soc Sci Med. 2013 May;85:9-17. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.02.026. Epub 2013 Feb 26.
People on low-income living in low socio-economic neighbourhoods have poorer health in comparison with those living in advantaged neighbourhoods. To explore neighbourhood effects on health and social capital creation, the experiences of low-income people living in contrasting socio-economic neighbourhoods were compared, in order to examine how low-income status and differing levels of neighbourhood resources contributed to perceived health and wellbeing. Quantitative and qualitative data were analysed: survey data from 601 individuals living in contrasting socio-economic areas and in-depth interviews with a new sample of 24 individuals on low-incomes. The study was guided by Bourdieu's theory of practice, which examines how social inequalities are created and reproduced through the relationship between individuals' varying resources of economic, social and cultural capital. This included an examination of individual life histories, cultural distinction and how social positions are reproduced. Participants' accounts of their early life experience showed how parental socio-economic position and socially patterned events taking place across the life course, created different opportunities for social network creation, choice of neighbourhood and levels of resources available throughout life, all of which can influence health and wellbeing. A definition of poverty by whether an individual or household has sufficient income at a particular point in time was an inadequate measure of disadvantage. This static measure of 'low income' as a category disguised a number of different ways in which disadvantage was experienced or, conversely, how life course events could mitigate the impact of low-income. This study found that the resources necessary to create social capital such as cultural capital and the ability to socially network, differed according to the socio-economic status of the neighbourhood, and that living in an advantaged area does not automatically guarantee access to potentially beneficial social networks.
生活在社会经济地位较低社区的低收入人群的健康状况比生活在较有利社区的人群差。为了探索邻里效应对健康和社会资本创造的影响，比较了生活在不同社会经济社区的低收入人群的经验，以研究低收入状况和不同水平的邻里资源如何促进感知健康和幸福感。对定量和定性数据进行了分析：来自生活在不同社会经济地区的 601 个人的调查数据以及对 24 名新的低收入个人的深入访谈。本研究以 Bourdieu 的实践理论为指导，该理论考察了社会不平等是如何通过个人经济、社会和文化资本的不同资源之间的关系而产生和复制的。这包括对个人生活史、文化差异以及社会地位如何复制的审查。参与者对其早期生活经历的描述表明，父母的社会经济地位和贯穿整个生命周期的社会模式事件，为社会网络的创建、社区的选择以及整个生命周期中可用资源的水平创造了不同的机会，所有这些都可能影响健康和幸福感。将个人或家庭在特定时间是否有足够收入作为衡量贫困的标准是对劣势的不充分衡量。这种“低收入”的静态衡量标准作为一个类别，掩盖了劣势的许多不同体验方式，或者相反，生活过程中的事件如何减轻低收入的影响。这项研究发现，创造社会资本所需的资源，如文化资本和社交网络的能力，因社区的社会经济地位而异，而生活在一个有利的地区并不能自动保证获得潜在有益的社交网络。
