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Social change or business as usual at city hall? Examining an urban municipal government's response to neighbourhood-level health inequities

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  • Cahuas, Madelaine C.
  • Wakefield, Sarah
  • Peng, Yun

Abstract

There is a renewed interest in the potential of municipal governments working collaboratively with local communities to address health inequities. A growing body of literature has also highlighted the benefits and limitations of participatory approaches in neighbourhood interventions initiated by municipal governments. However, few studies have investigated how neighbourhood interventions tackling health inequities work in real-time and in context, from the perspectives of Community Developers (CDs) who promote community participation. This study uses a process evaluation approach and semi-structured interviews with CDs to explore the challenges they face in implementing a community development, participatory process in the City of Hamilton's strategy to reduce health inequities – Neighbourhood Action. Findings demonstrate that municipal government can facilitate and suppress community participation in complex ways. CDs serve as significant but conflicted intermediaries as they negotiate and navigate power differentials between city and community actors, while also facing structural challenges. We conclude that community participation is important to bottom-up, resident-led social change, and that CDs are central to this work.

Suggested Citation

  • Cahuas, Madelaine C. & Wakefield, Sarah & Peng, Yun, 2015. "Social change or business as usual at city hall? Examining an urban municipal government's response to neighbourhood-level health inequities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 366-373.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:133:y:2015:i:c:p:366-373
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2014.09.022
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Veenstra, Gerry & Luginaah, Isaac & Wakefield, Sarah & Birch, Stephen & Eyles, John & Elliott, Susan, 2005. "Who you know, where you live: social capital, neighbourhood and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2799-2818, June.
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    4. Patrick DeLuca & Steve Buist & Neil Johnston, 2012. "The Code Red Project: Engaging Communities in Health System Change in Hamilton, Canada," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(2), pages 317-327, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Nicolás Barbieri & Raquel Gallego & Ernesto Morales & Maica Rodríguez-Sanz & Laia Palència & M. Isabel Pasarín, 2018. "Measuring and Analysing Community Action for Health: An Indicator-Based Typology and Its Application to the Case of Barcelona," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(1), pages 25-45, August.
    2. Hoon Chuah, Fiona Leh & Srivastava, Aastha & Singh, Shweta Rajkumar & Haldane, Victoria & Huat Koh, Gerald Choon & Seng, Chia Kee & McCoy, David & Legido-Quigley, Helena, 2018. "Community participation in general health initiatives in high and upper-middle income countries: A systematic review exploring the nature of participation, use of theories, contextual drivers and powe," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 106-122.
    3. Heng Zhang & Rodney H. Matsuoka & Yu-Jan Huang, 2018. "How Do Community Planning Features Affect the Place Relationship of Residents? An Investigation of Place Attachment, Social Interaction, and Community Participation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-19, August.

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