This paper explores relations between narrative, memory and social representations by examining how social representations express the ways in which communities deal with the historical past. Drawing on a case study of social representations of the Brazilian public sphere, it shows how a specific narrative of origins re-invents history as a useful mythological resource for defending identity, b...

INTRODUCTION Recognition of the factors related to women's health is necessary. Evidence is available that the social structure including social capital plays an important role in the shaping people's health. The aim of the current study was to investigate the association between self-rated health and social capital in women of reproductive age. METHODS This study is a population-based cross-...

A debate that took place in France in the early 20th century still has much to tell us about the interpretation and strategies of intervention of suicide, particularly the "cohort effect" of aboriginal youth suicide. The act of suicide, for Durkheim, was inseparable from the problem of social cohesion, with extremes in solidarity and regulation predictably reflected in high rates of suicide. Fo...

The Occupy Wall Street movement is a reflection of the American people's sentiments against a growth model which over-rewards the top 1 per cent and 2 under-rewards the remaining 99 per cent. The inequality in Singapore, as measured by the Gini coefficient, is even greater than that in America. Too great a gap between rich and poor undermines solidarity and social cohesion. It poses a threat to...

INTRODUCTION Indigenous elders have traditionally played an important role in maintaining social cohesion within their communities. Today, part of this role has been taken over by government social and healthcare services, but they are having limited success in addressing social challenges. Increasing elders' social participation and intergenerational solidarity might foster community developme...

This study explores the current neighbourhood cohesion in Chinese cities and how it might be affected by the influx of migrants. Our multilevel analysis is based on a 1420 sized household survey conducted in Shanghai in 2013. The results reveal that the influx of migrants does not generate all negative results contrasting existing literature where migrants tend to reduce cohesion in the neighbo...