Social capital and its relevance to health and family policy

It is important to consider the global context in which we operate and in which the association between society and health is to be explored. We are in a democratic world, with an economy that emphasises the market and a postmodern culture.

The ancient elements of state, market and community are discernible in avaricious combinations and, if we are seeking a just social order, it is important that we apply appropriate analytical methods to social understanding. While social capital is an arresting term, its ambiguity limits its broad applicability and even makes it dangerous.

Sir Richard Doll and his colleague Richard Peto once described epidemiological insight as a boundary-setting exercise, delimiting territory within which basic and clinical science can explore mechanisms. When it comes to matters of social and personal well-being, the same approach may serve us well. Social capital, defined differently by everyone who uses it, must be given some stability and be subject to good quality epidemiological research, not too dissimilar to that which has underpinned epidemiology's immense success in public health over the decades. Despite social capital's complexity, there are growing efforts to measure it and relate it to desirable social functions, but the ability of social capital to capture fully the subtle interplay of individuals and society so essential for their health and happiness is questionable.