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Reason and protest in the new urban public health movement: An observation on the sociological analysis of political discourse in the 'healthy city'

Milewa, Timothy, de Leeuw, E. (1996) Reason and protest in the new urban public health movement: An observation on the sociological analysis of political discourse in the 'healthy city'. British Journal of Sociology, 47 (4). pp. 657-670. ISSN 0007-1315. (doi:10.2307/591078) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:18685)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
https://doi.org/10.2307/591078

Abstract

The urban environment represents an important social and geographical focus for the international new urban public health movement in general and the World Health Organization's 'Healthy Cities' project in particular. Existing and new policies of relevance to urban health are however infused with notions of cause, effect and ideas of appropriate intervention that reflect highly malleable and more or less conscious expressions of rationality, self-interest and organizational purpose - Factors central to sociological analysis of the political discourse and objectives associated with the new urban public health movement. This article begins to develop a research agenda in this respect through consideration of the 'language' of policy and reference to Habermas' idea of 'communicative reason'. It is argued that case-study based research into the discourse of the new urban public health movement has to balance empirical accounts with analysis of the 'policy ontologies' that confront and underpin the mobilizations and has, secondly, to consider the 'communicative capacity and orientation' of such initiatives.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.2307/591078
Subjects: R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research > Centre for Health Services Studies
Depositing User: F.D. Zabet
Date Deposited: 22 Jun 2009 17:35 UTC
Last Modified: 09 Mar 2023 11:31 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/18685 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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