Bonding, bridging and linking social capital Elizabeth Gyorfi-Dyke November 20, 2007 EPI 6181

Definitions Bonding social capital: close relationships between similar people; social ties in your immediate life such as family, friends; “within the group structure”; the informal realm Bridging social capital: establishing relationships of respect and mutuality between people who are not personally close, but who are at similar hierarchical levels; these help people get ahead; the civic realm, connections with different groups or communities Linking social capital: newer term; like bridging but these relationships are with people across different hierarchical levels and power (vertical ties); the institutional realm; helps people gain resources to bring about broader change. Kim, Subramanian, Kawachi (2006); Altschuler, Somkin, Adler (2004); Harpham, Grant and Thomas, 2002

Why this Matters to Health Bridging and bonding social capital may result in health benefits through mechanisms such as faster diffusion of knowledge about health related innovations, maintenance of healthy norms (Kim et. al. 2006) Bridging – potential for “empowerment and development projects” (Harpham, 2002, p. 109)

Some research findings Kim, Subramanian, Kawachi: surveys of 24,835 people in 40 communities; “community bonding social capital and community bridging social capital were associated with 14% and 5% lower odds of self-reported fair or poor health respectively” (p. 119) Altschuler, Somkin, and Adler: qualitative research (interviews and focus groups); bonding social capital tends to be the same across different SES neighbourhoods, while bridging social capital seems to be in greater amounts in higher SES neighbourhoods (so, for example, more ability to mobilize to improve the neighbourhood in higher SES)

Measurement Quantitative and qualitative –Quantitative Participation in formal community organizations, volunteer activities, political activities (bonding – organizations didn’t share same sociodemographics such as sex/race/ethnicity/education as respondent; bridging – share same sociodemographic characteristics as respondent) (Mitchell and LaGory, 2002) Also diversity of friendships; number of times one was invited over to someone’s house who was of a different ethnicity or race (Kim et. al., 2006)

Measurement cont’d Challenge (with social capital generally as well): individual or aggregate group characteristics? (Altschuler et. al); Some aim to measure community characteristics that are not aggregates (Harpham, 2002, p. 110) Qualitative methods (observation) (Lochner et. al., 1999) –Mediators: individual vs. community social capital for example

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