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For the sake of health! Reflections on the contemporary use of social capital and empowerment in Danish health promotion policies

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Abstract

Social capital and empowerment are increasingly used as key concepts integrated into methods of building healthy communities and as means of explaining inequities in health status within the field of Health Promotion. Although applying these concepts in a public health context offers a more holistic and socially oriented approach to health, problems arise when they are used in an imprecise and inconsistent manner. Health Promotion ideology tends to be transformed into politico-ideological complexes of power that enforce either a republican or a neoliberal perception of what the good life consist of. This may lead health professionals to participate in political projects dressed as pure health promotion that risk neglecting the various ways people may become empowered or socially engaged in their communities. We use two examples to illustrate these tendencies. Both examples arise from community building projects that demonstrate intertwined use of empowerment and social capital as part of political discourse. However, it is our primary aim to account for the different origins of the concepts in order to clarify their differences and similarities and to discuss their potentials in the context of Health Promotion. We draw on a range of theories such as those suggested by Bourdieu, Coleman, Putnam, Mayo, Rappaport and Eklund.

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Notes

  1. Sometimes referred to as Health Promotion in the indefinitive.

  2. Our translation: Speech given at the opening day of the web page for the community, Korskærparken. Published and printed from http://korskaerparken.dk/?p=795.

  3. Our translation. Et indre Kvarterløft: 15 års erfaringer fra Sønderbro Horsens: 24. Velfærdsministeriet og Sønderbrogruppen 2007. Horsens. Downloaded from www.soenderbro-horsens.dk.

  4. The concepts of formal and informal social capital indicate to what extent the maintenance of social capital is upheld by formal institutions and do not merely rest on habits and shared ways of life. The distinction between thick and thin social capital depends on the frequency of interaction between individuals. Thick social capital is maintained by close, everyday interaction, whereas thin social capital is maintained by less frequent encounters. The distinction between inward looking and outward looking social capital aims to show to what extent the maintenance of social capital helps provide private goods that are only accessible for members of a particular social group, or public goods that are accessible to everyone (Putnam, 2004). Eventually, his distinction between bonding and bridging social capital refers to social capital that is maintained by relationships inside a homogeneous group, and social capital that is maintained by relations between distinct, and sometimes even opposing, social groups, respectively. Putnam's concept of bonding social capital, which was suggested earlier than 2004, has also been termed communal capital, whereas the concept of bridging social capital also has been termed linking social capital (Adler and Kwon (2002) with reference to Oh et al (1999)).

  5. The Chronic Disease Self-Management Program of the Stanford University School of Medicine is the most widely known model for general patient education, and this model is implemented in Denmark (Sundhedsstyrelsen, 2009).

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Christian Rostbøll, Gunnar Lind Hasse Svendsen, Gert Tinggaard Svendsen, Morten Frederiksen, Kim Mannemar Sørensen, Henrik Paul Bang, Merete Watt Boolsen, Peter Nedergaard and Tom Bryder for comments on earlier versions of this article as well as participants at the workshop Sociology of the Body & Health at the 24th conference of the Nordic Sociological Association 2008.

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Andersen, P., Jørgensen, S. & Larsen, E. For the sake of health! Reflections on the contemporary use of social capital and empowerment in Danish health promotion policies. Soc Theory Health 9, 87–107 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1057/sth.2010.8

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