Social position and young people's health: a Bourdieu'ian critique of dominant conceptualisations of social capital

 The concept of social capital is used in many sociological studies in general, and has recently been applied in studies about children and health, and often with reference to Coleman and Putnam. Bourdieu's concept of social capital is also utilized, and is frequently seen as closely related to Coleman and Putnam. In this theoretical article, we will unpack Bourdieu's use of social capital, and will suggest that his general sociology has different questions, concepts and perspectives to the questions addressed in the work of Coleman and Putnam. Social capital in the work of Bourdieu needs to be related to his overall reflections on reproduction in society, his construction of the ‘scientific object' and his concepts of capital in general. Based on epistemological reflections, we suggest, following Bourdieu, sociology needs to be based on theoretical and not everyday constructions, and as such needs to elaborate political constructions of the object. Our starting point for this paper arises from our experiences of empirical social research with young people in Denmark and England that attempted to explore ‘social capital' in relation to health.