Social capital and health inequality in european welfare states 2013

Drawing on cross-national European data from the European Social Survey as well as Swedish national survey data and registers, this book investigates social capital in relation to health and health inequalities in European welfare states. Front Matter....Pages i-xix Introduction....Pages 1-17 Theoretical Foundations of Social Capital in Health Research....Pages 18-41 Social Capital and Welfare: Do Universal Welfare States “Crowd Out” or Stimulate Social Capital?....Pages 42-60 Social Capital and Health: Mechanisms and Empirical Findings....Pages 61-85 Health Inequalities by Education in European Welfare Regimes: The Contribution of Individual Social Capital....Pages 86-111 Health Inequalities Between European Welfare Regimes: The Contribution of Collective Social Capital....Pages 112-132 Social Capital and Health Inequality in the Social-Democratic Swedish Welfare State....Pages 133-160 The Dark Sides of Social Capital: Homophily and Closure of Immigrants’ Social Networks in the Swedish Welfare State....Pages 161-183 Concluding Discussion....Pages 184-201 Back Matter....Pages 202-234 "This book sets out unique findings on whether social capital influences health and health inequalities in European welfare states. Drawing on cross-national data from the European Social Survey (ESS) as well as Swedish national survey data and registers, the book develops a new theoretical definition of social capital that guides the books empirical studies. The findings suggest that welfare state generosity is a decisive factor for social capital and that social capital is of significance for health inequalities both between and within European welfare states. The book also discusses the potential dark sides of social capital and examines evidence of circumstances in which social capital has negative health externalities."--Publisher's website