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Following Howarth (2007), this paper examines the relationship between class culture and social distinction in the empirical area of death and dying. For Howarth (2007), the sociological neglect of the end-of-life cultural practices of working-class people carries the danger 'of privileging middle-class agendas for change, … [t]here is an urgent need for further studies … and a refinement of existing research to draw out social class distinctions' (p. 433). Drawing on Howarth (2007), and Bourdieu (1984), it is argued below that the connexion between death and class reflects and helps to reproduce class-based identities, advantages and conflicts. Whilst class culture can be a supportive resource for working-class people, for example, in ways which reflect solidarity, more typically the classed nature of death brings acute suffering. Relatedly, it is proposed that stereotypes of declining respectability are reflected in some middle-class conceptions of working-class practices and identity connected to death. Such thinking socially positions working-class tastes as objects of disgust, and working-class people as disgusting subjects. It is concluded that, whilst Howarth's call is much warranted, the debate also needs to problematise the normalisation of middle-class ways to die and grieve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital is attracting increasing attention, particularly as a means of improving health status. However, much of the work on social capital employs Putnam's (1995) formulation of the concept. This view suggests social capital produces generalised benefits, thus presenting an anomaly between the higher stocks of social capital in Australian rural communities relative to urban areas, and their poorer health status. This paper presents data on the experience of same-sex attracted (SSA) women living in rural communities in South Australia. It suggests Bourdieu's account of social capital is more theoretically and empirically compelling than that of Putnam's, because of its capacity to explain the harmful psycho-social consequences of exclusion for those who are samesex attracted. Moreover, the different experiences of younger and older samesex attracted people in rural Australia indicates the need to take seriously the claim that social capital is unequally distributed and experienced in different ways. A conclusion of this paper is that blanket claims to increase and enhance social capital should be treated cautiously because of the adverse consequences for some groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the example of Samoa to argue that Western models of health promotion and suicide prevention, especially those which draw on conventional understandings of social capital, are not appropriate for non-Western communities, for they are generally not sensitive to cultural beliefs, values and rituals. As such, the value of homogenously promoting social capital as an adjunct to suicide prevention strategies needs to be questioned. Suicide prevention and resilience strategies must be culturally relevant and developed 'by the people for the people', to address the nature of the suicide problem in Samoa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicide is a very contemporary issue in the USA. Despite the social characteristics related with suicide, the discipline of sociology has remained relatively silent on the issue. This paper builds upon Durkheim's approach by using social capital theory as a framework to examine suicide rates across 2688 US counties. Using ordinary least-squared regression modelling, we found that counties with higher rates of social capital, diversity, and population density experienced lower suicide rates. Counties that had higher levels of divorce, unemployment, poverty, education, and median age experienced higher suicide rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Postgraduate physician assistant (PA) programs designed to train individuals for the workplace have existed since the advent of the profession itself. These residency programs continue to grow in number despite the lack of outcome data supporting improvements in PA learning, effects on career development, or improved patient care. Leadership bodies of the PA profession in the US have been at odds regarding the meaning and ramification of postgraduate programs on specialty credentialing, accreditation standards, insurance reimbursement, and employment. Using Bourdieu's cultural conflict theory as a framework, we analyze the issues confronting postgraduate PA training programs. Our paper discusses implications related to shifts in power amongst the different stakeholders concluding that, although formal postgraduate PA training can be beneficial to both the PA and the medicine, considerations related to underlying agendas need attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The four years from 2001 to 2005 saw the roll out of an innovative social enterprise on one of Melbourne's high rise public housing estates, Atherton Gardens. It provided residents with access to personal computers, computer training, an intranet, internet and email, as well as establishing a training room, open access computer lab, repairs workshop and a help desk service for computer users. This paper reports on a three year research project which was undertaken to assess the impact of this initiative and to analyse its effects, not only on residents' access to and use of new forms of information and communication technologies, but also the less tangible effects of an electronic network on health, social capital and community well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although an increasing number of studies emphasise migrants' knowledge about their healthcare rights as crucial for their healthcare usage, almost none examine the conditions under which migrants acquire this knowledge. This study contributes to the literature by studying the main determinants of migrants' knowledge about their healthcare rights: Self-interest and necessity, human capital, and social capital. I use unique data collected through the project Migrants' Welfare State Attitudes (MIFARE), where we surveyed 10 different migrant groups within Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany on their relation to the welfare state, including healthcare. Analysing a total sample of 6,864 migrants using multinomial logistic regression analyses I find that migrants' knowledge about their healthcare rights depends mainly on their education and language skills. Both factors enable migrants to grasp health-related information and to become informed about their healthcare rights. I also observe a network effect since healthcare experiences of family members contribute to migrants' healthcare knowledge. Social ties to the co-ethnic community, however, do not explain why some migrants know more about their healthcare rights than others. Lastly, I find large differences between migrant groups, which remain even after controlling for all relevant factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents an overview of the topics discussed within the issue. The relations between health, gender, class, policy and the labeling of disease and concepts such as social capital are investigated. The use of technologies in clinical work and the management and funding of the healthcare system are examined.

Research on cultural capital mobilised in healthcare largely focuses on how patients of low-socioeconomic status or ethnic minority groups struggle in the healthcare field. This study examines how providers, care coordinators, and administrators use their own cultural capital resources to bolster equity in health services, and explores the limitations of such efforts. Thirty-five hours of interviews with Hispanic and non-Hispanic White personnel at U.S. community health centres are used to explore how individuals on the 'supply-side' of healthcare may exhibit flexible expectations of patient cultural capital. Participants acknowledge how factors such as immigration status and family roles affect patient ability to exhibit traditionally high-value cultural capital in clinical interactions. Yet, providers' flexible expectations and cultural knowledge alone cannot deliver comprehensive care to indigent patients of colour. Persistent systemic barriers like high costs and limited public programs require healthcare workers to navigate care outside of interactions with patients. Participants describe the precarious process of drawing favours from professional social networks to coordinate access for patients facing multiple forms of social marginalisation. While acknowledging the importance of cross-cultural skills, this research explains processes impeding professional cultural training interventions in their ability to correct health service inequities on a broad scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informed by Bourdieu and Passeron's theory of reproduction, we investigated relationships between the cultural and economic capitals of South Korean parents and the capitals and self-rated health of their adult children in cross-sectional survey data from the 2006 Korea Welfare Panel Study. Parental education and childhood economic circumstances manifested independent associations with the self-rated health of the adult respondents. Much of the connection between parental capitals and respondent self-rated health was explained by respondent education. Educational attainment and household income but not receipt of monetary inheritance from their parents were significantly associated with the self-rated health of the respondents. Lastly, parental educational attainment was associated with the self-rated health of the women but not the men over and above the capitals held by the respondents themselves. Our study illuminates the importance of the intergenerational transmission of multiple forms of capital in the production of good health for South Korean adults. In particular, we propose that wealthy and well-educated South Korean parents employ their capitals to develop math and linguistics skills in their children that facilitate good performance in the standardised university entrance exams, success in the labour and/or marriage markets and, ultimately, good self-rated health for their adult children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The care of a person living at home near the end of their life is predominantly provided by family carers with the support of health services such as palliative care. In addition, informal caring networks also contribute at times to the support provided to the dying person and their carer. In this way, these networks can promote social capital in the communities from which they are drawn. This social approach to end of life care enhances community capacity to provide support to those dying at home and their carers. This article examines relevant published literature to explore the conceptual foundations of informal caring networks, examining the place of social capital and community development in the provision of end of life care at home, particularly in the Australian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study we analyze data from Statistics Canada's General Social Survey, a cross-sectional and nationally representative survey of Canada's population, to assess the impact of three dimensions of social capital on self-rated health. We measure these dimensions, which consist of social networks and social support, civic participation and social participation, with a comprehensive set of 5 indicators. To avoid reverse causality due to the cross-sectional nature of the data, we employ an instrumental variable simultaneous equations bivariate probit regression model. Our findings indicate that all of the tested dimensions of social capital have a positive and significant impact on self-rated health. These findings suggest that social capital plays an important role in enhancing the health of Canada's population. Endogeneity was detected in all of our estimations. Consequently, this study also has important methodological implications in that we demonstrate that relying solely on naive estimations leads to biased results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how Indigenous women who receive intercultural healthcare programs manage to develop cooperation networks, get involved in community affairs and improve their reproductive healthcare. It concentrates on the case of the Bolivian intercultural health program 'EXTENSA' and analyzes how this program is successful at activating greater community participation in health prevention and improving the reproductive healthcare of the Indigenous women who live in the Department of Beni, Bolivia. Through an ethnographic analysis, it argues that community participation and healthy behaviors are the result of tapping into bonding social capital and fostering women's empowerment. The analysis shows that the program gives women community leaders and women networks members (who predate EXTENSA) access to different types of resources, allowing women to transform their community assets into sources of collective empowerment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we discuss the 'bringing our dying home' research project which contributes to an understanding of caring at end of life (EOL) as potentially increasing social networks and community capacity. The main aims of the research were to illuminate the quality and effect of informal caring networks that are established, or strengthened, as a result of caring for a person dying at home and to understand how being involved in such a caring network impacts family, friends and the wider community. Using photo voice and network mapping in focus groups and interviews we collected 94 visual and oral narratives of caring and support. We found: people who engaged in acts of resistance to the Western expert-based approach to EOL care; that carers successfully mobilised and negotiated complex webs of relationships; and, that embodied learning about caring contributed to the development of social capital and compassionate communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an increasing understanding about the importance of social networks in the overall health of individuals. In the past year studies have found that strong social ties could promote brain health as we age; having obese friends increases the risk for obesity; and older people with many friends outlive those with fewer friends. This manuscript describes capacity-building interventions based on social capital, including empowerment, community youth development and collective efficacy models, which can work at the individual and community level in preventive and treatment-based interventions. These interventions allow public health practitioners working with low-income communities to reduce health disparities, promote well-being, and decrease inequalities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social capital, social networks, social support and health have all been linked, both theoretically and empirically. However, the relationships between them are far from clear. Surveys of social capital and health often use measures of social networks and social support in order to measure social capital, and this is problematic for two reasons. First, theoretical assumptions about social networks and social support being part of social capital are contestable. Second, the measures used inadequately reflect the complexity and ambivalence of social relationships, often assuming that all social ties and contacts are of similarly value, are mutually reinforcing, and, in some studies, are based on neighbourhoods. All these assumptions should be questioned. Progress in our understanding requires more qualitative research and improved choice of indicators in surveys; social network analysis may be a useful source of methodological and empirical insight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]