Building bridges between health promotion and social sustainability: an analysis of municipal policies in Western Canada

Abstract

This paper reports an analysis of municipal policies through a population health-promotion lens; its purpose is to identify potential grounds for intersectoral collaboration. Template analysis methods based on widely accepted determinants of health (DOH) and health-promotion strategies were used to study policies from six Western Canadian municipalities: Vancouver, Victoria, Surrey, Edmonton, Calgary and Strathcona County. To illustrate overlapping concepts, findings regarding rich descriptions of social environments (one determinant of health) are highlighted. Similarly, social inclusion as a desired goal and community capacity building (as both process and outcome), appear to be concepts around which health promotion and social sustainability frames converge. These findings identify potentially fertile partnership opportunities: health promoters can deepen their understanding of DOH such as social inclusion and municipal leaders can learn from the evidence of effectiveness in health-promotion strategies.