An article examined the extent to which social capital could promote individual well-being in the form of good physical and mental health.
Source: Francesca Borgonovi, 'A life-cycle approach to the analysis of the relationship between social capital and health in Britain', Social Science & Medicine, Volume 71 Issue 11
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Dec
A new book (in four volumes) brought together 'canonical and leading-edge research' in the field of social capital.
Source: Nan Lin (ed.), Social Capital, Routledge
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Sep
A think-tank report said that people's well-being depended on the state of their relationships – with family and friends, neighbours, and work associates. It made a series of recommendations for ways in which policy-makers could provide a more supportive environment for these relationships to flourish.
Source: Peter Lynas, John Ashcroft and Michael Trend (eds.), A Relationships State of the Nation: Wellbeing in the mirror – Achieving and measuring a new sort of change, Relationships Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2010-Mar
A new book examined the evolution of the concept of 'social capital'. It said that social capital had expanded across the social sciences only by degrading the different disciplines and topics that it touched.
Source: Ben Fine, Theories of Social Capital: Researchers behaving badly, Pluto Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2010-Feb
An article examined the potential of social capital as a policy tool in Northern Ireland, and the value of the concept for interpreting community dynamics and devising strategies to enhance community relations.
Source: Andrea Campbell, Joanne Hughes, Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns, 'Social capital as a mechanism for building a sustainable society in Northern Ireland', Community Development Journal, Volume 45 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2010-Jan
A study identified the key factors that had undermined the ability of deprived neighbourhoods in a midlands city (Birmingham) to prosper – such as the role of economic restructuring, housing policy, international migration, and internal mobility. Predominantly white council wards lacked community structures such as churches, mosques, and youth groups that had helped ease the impact of economic decline in wards with high minority-ethnic populations.
Source: Alex Fenton, Peter Tyler, Sanna Markkanen, Anna Clarke and Christine Whitehead, Why Do Neighbourhoods Stay Poor? Deprivation, place and people in Birmingham, Barrow Cadbury Trust
Links: Report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2010-Jan