Abstract
The greying of European societies has created a number of challenges to the welfare state, one being soaring expenditures for elderly care. Ways of promoting healthy and active ageing have therefore been called for, since this would not only enhance the wellbeing and independence of older adults, but also keep public expenditures in check. Levels of social spending on aging populations vary significantly between welfare states, filtering through pension systems, eldercare, and other types of support. The social-democratic countries have traditionally been characterised by universal and generous welfare systems that protect vulnerable groups in society, including the oldest. Several recent studies suggest that universalism also has positive implications on general levels of social capital in societies. Consequently, levels of social capital might vary systematically between countries, depending on the welfare state characteristics and the generosity of welfare systems. Although previous studies have shown that social capital is strongly related to health and wellbeing, most previous research in the field of social capital and health has so far focused on pure associations and ignored the significance of the broader institutional and political context for the creation and maintenance of social capital and its potential health consequences. The aim of this chapter is to analyse the role of welfare state features for levels of social capital among older adults in a European setting and to investigate whether levels of social capital contribute to higher levels of health in this group. For this purpose we analyse cross-national data from the European Social Survey (ESS) in 2010.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aidukaite, J. (2004). The emergence of the post-socialist welfare state. Doctoral dissertation, Södertörn University College.
Aidukaite, J. (2009). Old welfare state theories and new welfare regimes in Eastern Europe: Challenges and implications. Communist and Post-Communist Studies, 42, 2–39.
Allik, J., & Realo, A. (2004). Individualism-collectivism and social capital. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 35, 29–49.
Berkman, L., & Glass, T. (2000). Social integration, social networks, social support, and health. In L. Berkman & I. Kawachi (Eds.), Social epidemiology (pp. 137–173). New York: Oxford University Press.
Berkman, L. F., & Syme, S. L. (1979). Social networks, host resistance and mortality: A nine year follow-up study of Alameda county residents. American Journal of Epidemiology, 109, 186–204.
Bernburg, J., Thorlindsson, T., & Sigfusdottir, I. D. (2009). Relative deprivation and adolescent outcomes in Iceland: A multilevel test. Social Forces, 87, 1223–1250.
Blau, J. R., & Blau, P. M. (1982). The cost of inequality: Metropolitan structure and violent crime. American Sociological Review, 47, 114–129.
Bonoli, G. (1997). Classifying welfare states: A two-dimension approach. Journal of Social Policy, 26, 351–372.
Cohen, S., & Syme, S. L. (1985). Social support and health. New York: Academic Press.
Cohen, S., Underwood, L. G., & Gottlieb, B. (2000). Social support measurement and intervention. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cummins, S., Stafford, M., Macintyre, S., Marmot, M., & Ellaway, A. (2005). Neighbourhood environment and its association with self-rated health: Evidence from Scotland and England. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 59, 207–213.
Deacon, B. (1993). Developments in East European social policy. In B. Deacon (Ed.), New perspective on the welfare state in Europe (pp. 163–183). London: Routledge.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1990). The three worlds of welfare capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Esping-Andersen, G. (1999). Social foundations of postindustrial economies. New York: Oxford University Press.
European Social Survey. (2013). ESS Data. http://ess.nsd.uib.no/ess/round5/. Accessed: 10 May 2013.
Ferrera, M. (1996). The ‘southern’ model of welfare in social Europe. Journal of European Social Policy, 6, 17–37.
Franzini, L., Caughy, M., Spears, W., & Fernandez Esquer, M. E. (2005). Neighbourhood economic conditions, social processes, and self-rated health in low-income neighbourhoods in Texas: A multilevel latent variables model. Social Science and Medicine, 61, 1135–1150.
Fritzell, J., & Lennartsson, C. (2005). Financial transfers between generations in Sweden. Aging and Society, 25, 397–414.
Fritzell, J., Bäckman, O., & Ritakallio, V.-M. (2011). Income inequality and poverty: Do the Nordic countries still constitute a family of their own? (Working Paper Series, nr. 563). Luxembourg: Luxembourg Income Study.
Fukuyama, F. (2000). Social capital and civil society (IMF working paper No. 00/74). Washington, DC.
House, J. S. (1981). Work stress and social support. Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.
House, J. S., Landis, K. R., & Umberson, D. (1988). Social relationships and health. Science, 214, 540–545.
Islam, K., Merlo, J., Kawachi, I., Lindström, M., & Gerdtham, U.-G. (2006). Social capital and health: Does egalitarianism matter? A literature review. International Journal for Equity in Health, 5, 3.
Kääriäinen, J., & Lehtonen, H. (2006). The variety of social capital in welfare state regimes—A comparative study of 21 countries. European Societies, 8, 27–57.
Kangas, O. (1999). Social policy in settled and transitional countries: A comparison of institutions and their consequences. Ministry of Social Affairs and Health (8 July). http://pre20031103.stm.fi/english/tao/publicat/tandem/kangas/olli.htm. Accessed 3 March 2008.
Kawachi, I., & Berkman, L. (2000). Social cohesion, social capital, and health. In L. Berkman & I. Kawachi (Eds.), Social epidemiology (pp. 174–190). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kawachi, I., Kennedy, B. P., Lochner, K., & Prothrow-Stith, D. (1997). Social capital, income equality and mortality. American Journal of Public Health, 87, 1491–1498.
Kawachi, I., Subramanian, S. V., & Kim, D. (2008). Social capital and health. New York: Springer.
Kennedy, B. P., Kawachi, I., & Brainerd, E. (1998). The role of social capital in the Russian mortality crisis. World Development, 26, 2029–2043.
Klausen, K. K., & Selle, P. (1995). Frivillig organisering i norden. Köpenhamn: Jurist och ekonomförbundets Förlag.
Kohli, M. (1999). Private and public transfers between generations: Linking the family and the state. European Societies, 1, 81–104.
Kumlin, S., & Rothstein, B. (2005). Making and breaking social capital. Comparative Political Studies, 38, 339–365.
LeGrand, J. (1997). Knights, knaves or pawns? Human behaviour and social policy. Journal of Social Policy, 26, 149–169.
Mackenbach, J. P., Simon, J. G., Looman, C. W. N., & Joung, I. M. A. (2002). Self-assessed health and mortality: Could psychosocial factors explain the association? International Journal of Epidemiology, 31, 1162–1168.
Manderbacka, K. (1998). Questions on survey questions on health. Doctoral dissertation, Swedish Institute for Social Research, Stockholm.
Merton, R. K. (1968). Social structure and anomie. In R. K. Merton (Ed.), Social theory and social structure (pp. 185–214). New York: Free Press.
Narayan, D. (1999). Bonds and bridges: Social capital and poverty. Poverty Group, World Bank California, United States..
Nygård, M. (2013). Socialpolitik i Norden—en introduktion. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Passas, N. (1997). Anomie, reference groups, and relative deprivation. In N. Passas & R. Agnew (Eds.), The future of anomie theory (pp. 62–94). Boston: Northeastern University Press.
Pichler, F., & Wallace, C. (2007). Patterns of formal and informal social capital in Europe. European Sociological Review, 23, 423–435.
Putnam, R., Leonardi, R., & Nanetti, R. Y. (1993). Making democracy work—Civic traditions in modern Italy. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Rose, R. (1995). Russia as an hour-glass society: A constitution without citizens. East European Constitutional Review, 34, 34–42.
Rostila, M. (2007). Social capital and health in European welfare regimes—A multilevel approach. Journal of European Social Policy, 17, 223–239.
Rostila, M. (2011a). A resource-based theory of social capital for health research—Can it help us to bridge the individual and the collective facet of the concept? Social Theory and Health, 9, 109–129.
Rostila, M. (2011b). The facets of social capital. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 41, 308–326.
Rostila, M. (2013). Social capital and health inequality in European welfare states. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Rothstein, B. (2001). Social capital in the social democratic welfare state. Politics and Society, 2, 207–241.
Rothstein, B. (2003). Sociala fällor och tillitens problem. Stockholm: SNS förlag.
Rothstein, B., & Uslaner, E. (2005). All for all: Equality, corruption, and social trust. World Politics, 58, 41–72.
Scheepers, P., Te Grotenhuis, M., & Gelissen, J. (2002). Welfare states and dimensions of social capital-cross national comparisons of social contacts in European countries. European Societies, 4, 185–207.
Siegert, D. (2009). Why no ‘Dilemma of Simultaneousness’? The ‘Great Transformation’ in Eastern Central Europe considered from the point of view of post-socialist research. In R. Frank & S. Burghart (Eds.), Driving forces of socialist transformation (pp. 89–112). Wien: Praesens.
Stafford, M., Cummins, S., Macintyre, S., Ellaway, A., & Marmot, M. (2005). Gender differences in the association between health and neighbourhood environment. Social Science and Medicine, 60, 1681–1692.
Torpe, L. (2003). Social capital in Denmark: A deviant case? Scandinavian Political Studies, 26, 27–48.
van der Meer, T., Scheepers, P., & te Grotenhuis, M. (2009). States as molders of informal relations? A multilevel test on social participation in 20 western countries. European Societies, 11, 233–255.
van Oorschot, W., & Arts, W. (2005). The social capital of European welfare states: The crowding out hypothesis revisited. Journal of European Social Policy, 15, 5–26.
van Oorschot, W., Arts, W., & Gelissen, J. (2006). Social capital in Europe. Acta Sociologica, 49, 149–167.
Völker, B., & Flap, H. (2001). Weak ties as a liability. Rationality and Society, 13, 397–428.
Walker, A., & Maltby, T. (2012). Active ageing: A strategic policy solution to demographic ageing in the European Union. International Journal of Social Welfare, 21, 117–130.
Wolfe, A. (1989). Whose keeper? Social science and moral obligation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wilkinson, R. G. (1996). Unhealthy societies. London: Routledge.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rostila, M., Nygård, M., Nyqvist, F. (2015). The Role of Welfare States and Social Capital for Self-Rated Health among Older Europeans. In: Nyqvist, F., Forsman, A. (eds) Social Capital as a Health Resource in Later Life: The Relevance of Context. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9615-6_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9615-6_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9614-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9615-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawSocial Sciences (R0)