SOCIAL CAPITAL GLOBAL NETWORK (SCNG)
Contact :
Paul Dourgnon (Irdes)The concept of Social capital has a fairly long and interdisciplinary history. A convenient definition can be found in the World Bank papers: “Social capital refers to the institutions, relationships, and norms that shape the quality and quantity of a society's social interactions. Increasing evidence shows that social cohesion is critical for societies to prosper economically and for development to be sustainable. Social capital is not just the sum of the institutions which underpin a society – it is the glue that holds them together.”
The concept has been widely spread in social sciences, including sociology, political sciences, economics of development, and, more recently, Health economics. The Social Capital Global Network encourages research on the links between social capital and health.
The second SCGN workshop has been held in Paris, on Oct 10th and 11th 2008. It was jointly organized by IRDES, The Global Centre for Health Economics and Policy Research (GCHEPR) from Berkeley University and OECD.
- The first « Social Capital Global Network Workshop on Social Capital and Health » was in Berkeley (California) on October 26-28 2006.
This meeting gave rise to a special number of Health Economics Policy and Law revue (volume 3. Issue 4, 2008/09)
:
Access to psycho-social resources and health: exploratory findings from a survey of the Franch population.
Jusot F., Grignon M., Dourgnon P. Health Economics, Policy and Law. Volume 3. Issue 04, 2008/09. pp 365 -391.
On Cambridge Journals site 
- The Irdes organized on October 10-11 2008 the seconde research seminary on the Social Capital and Healthcapital social et la in collaboration with the Global Center for Health Economics and Policy Research (GCHEPR) and OECD.
The workshop addressed the following issues:
1. The study of the links between education, social capital and health
2. The assessment of causality between social capital and health
3. The impact of social capital on health services utilization
4. Policy implications of research on social capital and health
This seminary gave rise to a research report OECD:
Social Capital, Human Capital and Health: What is the Evidence?
Scheffler R.M., Petris N.C., Borgonovi F., Brown T.T., Sassi F., Dourgnon P., Sirven N. Paris : OCDE : Centre pour la recherche et l'innovation dans l'enseignement (CERI) ; Irdes, 2010/07, 45 p.
On OECD site
- The third seminary was on September 10-11 2010 in Oslo University, organized by the Université of Oslo and the Research Council of Norway.
