ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the question of whether social capital has value in understanding and promoting Indigenous health. Social capital is an abstract concept that has increasingly been used in the past decade as a basis for social policy. The chapter acknowledges the problems with the concept of social capital, but argues that it does have something to offer an understanding of how to improve Indigenous health status. It also considers the question of the directions social capital offers for improving Indigenous health and argues that, while effective linking social capital between Indigenous peoples and mainstream institutions is the area where most gain could be made, the conditions for this are currently not evident. Recent work on social capital has defined it as being of three types: bonding, bridging and linking. Understanding the difference between these is crucial to understanding the ways in which social capital helps us to understand health inequities.
