Invited Commentary: Embracing complexity: towards more nuanced understandings of social capital and health

Abstract

Malin Eriksson’s work on social capital provides some useful insights into factors mediating between macro-social relations and health, with particular attention to community-level drivers of health and well-being. In order to contextualise Eriksson’s contribution, this brief commentary has three aims: to place the rapid growth of interest in social capital in the past 15 years in its wider political context, to flag up some of the criticisms that have been levelled at the concept, and to highlight the ways in which Eriksson’s work contributes to current debates.

(Published: 8 February 2011)

Citation: Global Health Action 2011, 4: 5964 - DOI: 10.3402/gha.v4i0.5964