ABSTRACT
The idea that social structure – the extent to which people living together in a place are interdependent – can influence the health of individuals, is centuries, and perhaps millennia, old. This chapter reviews what is known about social interconnectedness and health, hoping to get at two concepts: the degree to which social interconnectedness is a necessary condition for the health of individuals and populations, and is part of the meaning of health. One major measure of the relationship between social capital and health is a measure called income inequality on the one hand, and longevity and infant mortality on the other hand. Even more, health and social justice are intimately related: social injustice worsens health as function, and shrinks longevity; social justice improves health and improves longevity. Social capital is the dance, a predicate of social organizations, of groups and communities and populations occupying places.
