The philosophical difference between social capital and health promotion lies in the difference of social harmony and social conflicts. In order to be able to understand the differences between the concepts, we need to step back and look at their origins. This is particularly important in the case of social capital because the concept has become rather fuzzy, since it has been adopted by social and behavioral sciences in the past few years. All of these areas, and particular regarding the guiding principles of action, demonstrate that health promotion aims at levels of collective action with regard to the improvement of individual and collective health conditions. Empowerment refers to processes of social interaction of individuals and groups, which aim at enabling people to enhance their individual and collective skills and the scope and range of controlling their lives in a given community.
Empowerment happens while people interact in ways of mutual respect, tolerance and social support.
The concept of social capital has emerged from sociological analyses concerning the quality of social relations and their impact on the lives of their participants. Participants of these relations demonstrated trust and confidence in each other, which helps enabling them as a social group to become successful in social, cultural, and political terms. Social capital according to Coleman's analysis refers to sociability and consequently to social status of the individual, which are seen to provide the main foundations for successful social relations. He found that trust and confidence are major ingredients of successful performance of these organizations when it comes to political and governmental reform. Trust and confidence are results of historical processes in which these organizations have been taken part, and not just outcomes of spontaneous developments in relation to specific political topics.