Do Network Members’ Resources Generate Health Inequality? Social Capital Theory and Beyond

Lin Song, Cleothia Frazier, and Phillip J. Pettis explain how network- and resource-based social capital leads to positive health consequences or inequalities in people’s health status in that people with more social capital are more advantaged in the maintenance and protection of health.

Lin Song[1], Cleothia Frazier[2], Phillip J. Pettis[3]

Bourdieu pioneered a theory of social capital and distinguished social capital from other forms of capital including economic capital and cultural capital. These three forms of capital is convertible into each other. Social Capital refers to resources derived from the membership in the group and such resources help people climb the social ladder in the stratified society. This forms a fundamental concept of social capital. However, Bourdieu provides no measurable and falsifiable definition of social capital. Building upon social resources theory Lin developed in 1970s and 1980s, Lin developed a social capital theory which theorizes the causes and consequences of social capital. In his theory, social capital and other forms of capital are measurable and independent, and thus suitable for quantitative research. Lin defines social capital as resources embedded in social networks and operationalizes it as network members’ status. He proposed a network instrument, the position generator, through which social capital is mainly measured as diverse indicators of network members’ occupational status, including the diversity and extensity of network members’ occupations, and the lowest, average, and highest occupational status of network members. Network members’ status can also be measured through other network instruments.

Both Bourdieu and Lin take the social stratification perspective and adopt a network- and resource-based approach to social capital. The application of this approach to empirical research is clear. The authors explain how this network- and resource-based social capital leads to positive health consequences or inequalities in people’s health status in that people with more social capital are more advantaged in the maintenance and protection of health. The authors also challenge the social resource assumption underlying this approach and discuss mechanisms linking network members’ status to negative health consequences. The accompanying literature review provides examples of previous empirical tests demonstrating or challenging the theory and a rich resource for future research.

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[1] Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Center for Medicine, Health, and Society, Vanderbilt University, USA.

[2] PhD student, Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, USA.

[3] PhD student, Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, USA.

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