Review Of "The Economic Implications Of Social Cohesion" Edited By L. Osberg

Document Type

Book Review

Publication Date

12-1-2003

Published In

Choice

Abstract

Tackling a topic of growing interest to social scientists, this volume offers theoretical and empirical insights into the relationship between social capital and social cohesion and a series of social and economic variables. These range from the specific (e.g., the relationship between social cohesion and the well-being of children and, in another chapter, the complex pathways relating health and social cohesion) to the more general (e.g., the ways in which social cohesion mediates the relationship between the public and voluntary sectors or how they affect regional development) to, finally, the macroeconomic implications of social cohesion. Editor Osberg (Dalhousie Univ., Canada) is explicit in noting that this volume does not offer a single answer to the question of how social capital and social cohesion affect economic and social outcomes--nor does it offer a common explicit understanding of what social cohesion and social capital are. Nevertheless, the book incorporates thought-provoking attempts to define these terms and to map their relationships to fundamental aspects of modern society and economy and can serve as a good introduction to this area of study for those readers already equipped with some background in economics and social policy. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional collections.

Comments

This work is freely available courtesy of Choice Reviews. The review has been reproduced in full in the abstract field.

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