Description
Health, Social Justice and the City (DEVP0042 PART I)
Content
This module introduces key approaches, theories and ideas for the study of urban health with an emphasis on the Global South emerging scholarship. The module will focus on the links between planning and health equity as well as on social justice and health disparities, producing an integrative, interdisciplinary and critical perspective of the interrelationships between urban processes and health disparities, examining both clinical and spatial dimensions of health such as infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, chronic diseases, social injustice and violence in cities. The main questions to be discussed in this module are: How (and why) does the urban (as both political and spatial entity) (re)produce health disparities; What are the epistemological and ideological foundations that shape intervention strategies in order to create strategic transformation in the field of urban health; And what is the role of planners, architects and development experts in promoting health justice? The module combines lectures, seminar discussions, one day field-trip, group activities, invited speakers and student presentations.
On completion of the module, participants will have:
· An in-depth understanding of the interrelationships between urban processes and health justice and their relation to infectious diseases, noncommunicable diseases and violence
· An in-depth knowledge of key concepts about how health disparities are shaped by urban processes, both in cities in general and in the Global South in particular
· Knowledge of the impacts of different development planning initiatives on urban justice and wellbeing in different regions.
Teaching delivery
This module is taught in 10 weekly lectures.
Indicative lecture topics
Lectures topics include social justice to health justice, Mental health and the city, Anthropological perspective on urban health and spaces, Public Health, Epidemiology and Urban Health, Social determinants of health and City\Food\Health nexus. Each year we update our module and the subjects might changes.
Module Aims and/or Objectives:
The module aims to equip students with the knowledge and tools to critically understand the interrelationships between formal and informal urban processes in the Global South, planning and their effects on health justice. The module will discuss the health effects of urban processes at the level of urban and peri-urban communities and individuals. This module aims to produce an integrative, interdisciplinary and critical perspective of the interrelationships between urban processes and health disparities in general, and in the Global South in particular, examining both clinical and spatial dimensions of health such as infectious diseases, noncommunicable diseases, chronic diseases, social injustice and violence in cities.
Recommended readings
Bok, S (2008). Rethinking the WHO Definition of Health, In book: International Encyclopedia of Public Health, 2nd edition, Volume 3, Edition: 2nd Edition, Publisher: Elsevier, Editors: Quah SR, Cockerham WC 590-587
Cabannes Y. andMarocchino, C. (eds.). 2018.Integrating Food into Urban Planning. 鶹ýƵվ Press: London; FAO: Rome
Corburn,J., (2015). Towards the Healthy City. MIT Press.
Marmot, M., (2017). “Social justice, epidemiology and health inequalities”, European Journal of Epidemiology 32:537-546.
Obrist, B. et al. (2003). Health anthropology and urban health research. Anthropology and Medicine, Vol. 10, No. 3, 267-274.
Rydin, Y. et al. (2012). Shaping cities for health: complexity and the planning of urban environments in the 21st century. The Lancet (British edition). [Online] 379 (9831), 2079–2108.
Vlahov, D., Galea, S., (2003). “Urban health: a new discipline”, The Lancet 362:109.
Yacobi H., (2022) “Syndemic urbanism – Southeastern perspectives on urban health”. In: Yiftachel, O., Mammon, N. (eds) theoriSE: Debating the southeastern turn in urban theories. Cape Town: African Centre for Cities 109-115
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.