Commentary: Can subtle refinements of popular concepts be put into practice?

provides a welcome contribution to currentdebates surrounding the field of social capital and public health.The authors provide, firstly, an analytical basis for discriminat-ing between the different stances; secondly, they outlinea theoretical framework for reconciling the polarized views;thirdly, they offer a historical perspective to support theirtheoretical framework; fourthly, they discuss the significanceof their thesis for social capital theory and public health, andlastly they provide a brief summary of the policy implications forpublic health arising from their own framework and the broadersocial capital literature. In doing all this, they have assembled animpressive range of literature to support their thesis.