EXTERNAL CAPABILITY 13: ECONOMIC, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL SECURITY
General feelings of security
Overview
Functioning 1. Extent to which individuals and group feel secure or insecure in their immediate and broader macrosocial environment
What is it?
Economic, political, and social security is an external capability that measures the extent to which individuals and groups feel secure in their immediate and broader macrosocial environment. A sense of security may be felt across the group, community, state, or national levels, and impacts health in multiple ways including through stress and anti-discrimination.
Why is it important?
Economic, political, and social insecurity negatively impact health through the long-term negative health effects of chronic stress, and short-term negative health effects that oppressed groups may face like death. Conversely, economic, political, and social security in the macrosocial environment are important to health because they feed into one’s sense of safety, security, self-efficacy, and positive expectations.
What does it look like?
As opposed to individual-level shifts in economic status, this capability is affected by broader changes in the national and subnational economic and political systems that may generate job, financial, housing, or political security and an optimistic outlook. Other indicators of the capability of economic, political, and social security include physical safety and security, as measured through, for example, low rates of violence and crime in one's area.
How do WE do it?
We can increase our economic, political, and social security in the macrosocial environment by creating social and political institutions and structures that generate and protect job, financial, housing, and political security, as well as physical safety and security. Prominent cultural, political, and moral leaders should espouse ideals of safety, security, equality, fairness, respect for persons, justice, and peace while enacting anti-discriminatory policies and practices seeking to address historic injustices.
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