Urban Health Equity

We invite submissions that critically define health and equity in the urban context. We seek papers that move beyond conceptualisations of health disparities and conceptualise inequities by linking health to a range of disciplines. We encourage papers that use the broad World Health Organization definition of health as a starting point and then help reveal the urban processes and conditions that can contribute to greater equity, not just document inequities.

We invite submissions that highlight the connections between processes that shape urban informality and health equity. While much has been written about urban informality, few researchers have explicitly linked this to human health. Further, the processes of upgrading, or improving informal settlements, has rarely been conceptualised as a health equity intervention. Papers that draw on community, indigenous and informal knowledge and processes are especially welcome.

Urban environmental injustices, from concentrations of toxic pollution, processes of land dispossession and gentrification, and lack of political power, have all contributed to health inequities in cities. We invite analyses on how processes and action to aimed at achieving greater environmental justice may be promoting greater health equity for marginalised groups, racial and ethnic minorities and other already vulnerable populations. We are especially interested in papers that highlight how communities are working to achieve greater climate justice in cities, which might mean reducing vulnerabilities, fostering greater adaptive capacity or implementing reparative and restorative justice practices.

Chronic or prolonged stress from urban social and spatial inequities can adversely impact mental well-being of city residents. Yet, practices such as urban greening and community violence reduction have been shown to reduce anxiety, lower stress levels and help traumatised communities begin to heal. We are interested in papers that critically examine the processes of improving urban mental well-being and community healing from urban harms. This might include papers that address structural violence, which we recognise as traumas that might be linked to inadequate infrastructure, the ‘slow violence’ or benign neglect of some communities, and bureaucratic or institutional ‘violence’ that can normalises suffering by withholding services or not enforcing health and safety standards.

Work and labour in cities were once a core concern of urban health researchers, but ‘occupational health’ has not adequately engaged with the dynamic and changing types of recognised and unacknowledged labour in cities, such as caregiving, gig economies, and others shape urban health equity. We are especially interested in papers that engage critically with ways gender roles and family structure significantly impact urban health, as well as issues facing LGBTQ+ populations.

Health geography and medical anthropology recognise that place shapes opportunities to be healthy in a myriad of ways. Urban place is not merely about built environments, but how people, materiality and nature interact in cities. We encourage papers that critically engage with how notions of urban place and promote greater health equity. We also seek papers that define urban health equity using a systems approach, while also engaging critically with this concept as one that can exclude already vulnerable groups.  We recognise that culture, art and play are often part of urban place-making, and we seek papers that might explore how these practices are aiming to promote greater urban health equity. Finally, urban transport, housing, economies and other ‘systems’ can and do shape opportunities for health equity. We encourage papers that explore the integration and intersections of these urban sectors, rather than one at a time, in exploring their potential for health promotion.

As this journal has recognised, cities are shaped by institutions, people and practices – both formal and informal. This is a central part of urban governance and inevitably it is governance that shapes urban health. Healthy governance cannot be understood as the work only of government, but surely political reforms are necessary to promote greater health equity. Governance thus comprises both institutions and procedures both formalised in constitutions and laws, and informal, such as those promoted by corporations, NGO coalitions, and through social media—that shape collective action or inaction and human well-being. We seek papers that engage in critical and even radical discussions of how urban governance can be aligned to support greater health equity.