Abstract
Increasing recognition of interdependencies of the health of humans, other organisms and ecosystems, and of their importance to socio-ecological systems, necessitates application of integrative concepts such as One Health and EcoHealth. These concepts open new perspectives for research and practice but also generate confusion and divergent opinion, prompting new theories, and call for empirical clarification and evaluation. Through a semi-systematic evaluation of knowledge generation in scientific publications (comprised of literature reviews, conceptual models and analyses of communities of practice), we show how integrative concepts and approaches to health evolve and are adopted. Our findings indicate that while their contexts, goals and rationales vary, integrative concepts of health essentially arise from shared interests in living systems. Despite recent increased attention to ecological and societal aspects of health including broader sustainability issues, the focus remains anthropocentric and oriented towards biomedicine. Practices reflect and in turn transform these concepts, which together with practices also influence ways of integration. Overarching narratives vary between optimism and pessimism towards integrated health and knowledge. We conclude that there is an urgent need for better, coherent and more deeply integrative health concepts, approaches and practices to foster the well-being of humans, other animals and ecosystems. Consideration of these concepts and practices has methodological and political importance, as it will transform thinking and action on both society and nature and specifically can enrich science and practice, expanding their scope and linking them better. Transdisciplinary efforts are crucial to developing such concepts and practices to properly address the multiple facets of health and to achieve their appropriate integration for the socio-ecological systems at stake. We propose the term “transdisciplinary health” to denote the new approaches needed.
Highlights
Integrative concepts of health arise to contend with linkages between the subjects, attributes, determinants and fields of health in humans and other species and their shared ecological systems
On the above initial evaluations of gaps of knowledge, we address the following research questions: (1) How have these integrative concepts of health appeared in scientific literature, and what methodologies have been employed to study them; (2) How have such concepts been adopted and shaped in practice, and how has conceptual integration of health been perceived by communities practicing it; (3) What underlying narratives of health, knowledge and agency can be discerned in relevant literatures and practices; and (4) What is needed to further develop transdisciplinary cocreation of knowledge? We focus on knowledge production, but include initial analysis of its transfer, uptake and impacts, to be followed by in-depth studies of knowledge evaluation, application, implementation and co-creation
We summarize our key findings and discussion points with regard to the research questions posed at the outset: 1. Integrative concepts of health have emerged in the scientific literature in various forms and during different periods, ranging from narrow to broad perspectives and from traditional to novel research
Summary
Integrative concepts of health arise to contend with linkages between the subjects, attributes, determinants and fields of health in humans and other species and their shared ecological systems.
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