The Economic Implications Of Social Cohesion

Essays examine the impact of social networks and collective action on growth and other economic outcomes, contributing to understanding of the interaction between economic processes and their social framework.

This report analyses the impact of “Shifting wealth” on social cohesion, largely focusing on high-growth converging countries.

This book calls for a shift in policy focus from 'community cohesion' to social cohesion, and makes a valuable source both for practitioners, researchers and students.

Examines the literature on social cohesion. Presentsa range of indicators that have been used to measure social cohesion.

Sociologists and anthropologists have had a long interest in studying the ways in which cultures shaped different patterns of health, disease, and mortality. Social scientists have documented low rates of chronic disease and disability in non-Western societies and have suggested that social stability, cultural homogeneity and social cohesion may play a part in explaining these low rates. On the other hand, in studies of Western societies, social scientists have found that disease and mortality assume different patterns among various ethnic, cultural and social-economic groups. The role of stress, social change and a low degree of cohesion have been suggested, along with other factors as contributing to the variable rates among different social groups. Social cohesion has been implicated in the cause and recovery from both physical and psychological illnesses. Although there has been a large amount of work established the beneficial effects of cohesion on health and well-being, relatively little work has focused on HOW increased social cohesion sustains or improves health. This work is based on the premise that there are risk factors, including social cohesion that regulate health and disease in groups. One of the challenges is how to measure social cohesion – it can be readily observed and experienced but difficult to quantify. A better understanding of how social cohesion works will be valuable to improving group-level interventions.

The aim of this encyclopedia is to provide a comprehensive reference work on scientific and other scholarly research on the quality of life, including health-related quality of life research or also called patient-reported outcomes research. Since the 1960s two overlapping but fairly distinct research communities and traditions have developed concerning ideas about the quality of life, individually and collectively, one with a fairly narrow focus on health-related issues and one with a quite broad focus. In many ways, the central issues of these fields have roots extending to the observations and speculations of ancient philosophers, creating a continuous exploration by diverse explorers in diverse historic and cultural circumstances over several centuries of the qualities of human existence. What we have not had so far is a single, multidimensional reference work connecting the most salient and important contributions to the relevant fields. Entries are organized alphabetically and cover basic concepts, relatively well established facts, lawlike and causal relations, theories, methods, standardized tests, biographic entries on significant figures, organizational profiles, indicators and indexes of qualities of individuals and of communities of diverse sizes, including rural areas, towns, cities, counties, provinces, states, regions, countries and groups of countries.

Annotation Economists traditionally claim that free markets are the key to prosperity. Now many are coming to realize the importance of the social relationships that underpin all human activitiesincluding the marketplace. Drawing on an array of new economic studies, this book explains the concept of social cohesion and explores its impact on economic performance. It includes case studies linking social cohesion to workplace productivity, school quality, health and the welfare of children. Later chapters examine the origin of social cohesion and the factors that favour or diminish it, with special attention to the fate of social cohesion in the globalizing world. Social Cohesion and Economic Prosperityexamines our increasingly frayed social fabric and explores ways in which an emphasis on social cohesion can promote a happier and more prosperous society.

In an original, and highly interdisciplinary, mixed method approach, Green and Janmaat identify four major traditions of social cohesion in developed societies, analyzing how these various mechanisms are withstanding the strains of the current global financial crisis.