Identifying and Strengthening the Structural Roots of Urban Health in Canada: Participatory Policy Research and the Urban Health Agenda

Abstract

An urban health research agenda for health promoters is presented. In Canada, urban issues are emerging as a major concern of policy makers. The voices raising these issues are from the non-health sectors, but many of these issues such as increasing income inequality and poverty, homelessness and housing insecurity, and social exclusion of youth, immigrants, and ethno-racial minorities have strong health implications as they are important social determinants of health. Emphasis on these and other social determinants of health and the policy decisions that strengthen or weaken them is timely as the quality of Canadian urban environments has become especially problematic. We argue for a participatory urban health research and action agenda with four components: (a) an emphasis on health promotion and the social determinants of health; (b) community-based participatory research; and (c) drawing on the lived experience of people to influence (d) policy analysis and policy change. Urban health researchers and promoters are urged to draw upon new developments in population health and community-based health promotion theory and research to identify and strengthen the roots of urban health through citizen action on public policy.