Sustainability and Urban Health Communication: Global Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

A nation’s public health initiatives have implications for its capacity to ensure the well-being of its citizens, as well as for its readiness to participate actively in global geopolitical and economic systems. In essence, public health is a sine qua non for the effectiveness of a variety of national outcomes enabled by the health of a nation’s sectors, from education to the arts and culture to business performance to military readiness. Those outcomes are more pressing in urban areas, where populations are more susceptible to the mammoth challenges of urbanization (Yang & Kanavos, 2012), and where population densities and demands for public-health and social services tend to be higher (Vearey, Thomson, Sommers, & Sprague 2017), making physical and mental health a more critical element in urban health. However, perhaps more important, as illustrated on the African continent, its increasingly urban and young population requires urgent action to “support progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other global health targets, including efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the Habitat III New Urban Agenda (NUA) and the African Union’s Agenda 2063 development plan” (Vearey, Luginaah, Magitta, Shilla, & Oni, 2019, para. 1). As Pratt (2014) notes, “The minuscule resources and the inadequate urban planning to address burgeoning urban residents’ health challenges result in urban challenges that are as multifactorial as their solutions are myriad” (p. 131).

The purpose of this Special Issue, then, is fourfold. First, to analyze some of those challenges strictly from theory-guided perspectives and within the context of the overarching importance of communication to enhancing urban health. The point here is to contribute to health-communication theories commonly used in health-delivery campaigns, while noting the degree to which they encourage public participation and negotiation between (urban) publics (as recipients of health services) and organizations (as health-care providers). Malikhao and Servaes (2014) refer to this negotiation as a form of “conventional health communication approach” (p. 145), arguing that “... it is in the process of interpersonal communication (through opinion leaders, gatekeepers and/or change agents) that the concerns of the people are identified, issues debated and decisions to adopt or not to adopt are reached through interactive processes. It is through such interactive processes that public pressure and demand are developed to influence policymakers.” (p. 146)

Second, to offer rigorous critiques on current practices and to present directives toward alternative theory-based approaches to health delivery as a complement to extant health practices.

Third, to address issues specific to underserved populations in urban areas. Such populations, which include immigrants and refugees, face continuing economic hardships that result in extreme inaccessibility to health care and limited awareness about healthful lifestyles. Improving the health of the urban poor should be a major concern of public-health agencies, as Kanaskar (2016) observes: “Participation of the urban poor in improving and maintaining urban health becomes very crucial as they are the most health-vulnerable and suffer from highly impoverished quality of life characterized by deprivation from basic services related to health and hygiene” (pp. 388, 390).

Fourth, because gender and ethnic issues loom large in health disparities (e.g., Priest, Paradies, Stewart & Luke, 2011), particularly in the Global South, it is imperative that the health status of ethnic minorities be increasingly understood for their potential effects on health policies. In China, for example, while significant health disparities exist among urban, rural, and migrant children, the moderating effect of fathers’ education is significantly higher for boys than for girls (Wang, 2019), bringing to the fore gender (e.g., Chen et al., 2019) and cultural influences on health status.

It must be stated here that the global perspectives indicated in this call resonate with the need for communication scholarship that also contributes to the de-Westernization of communication research. Waisbord (2019), in confronting a central issue in communication research, namely, “the globalization of academic scholarship under strong Western influence” (p. 8), issued a three-pronged “good-hearted, rousing call to Western scholars” (p. 105) to question dominant assumptions and to expand research boundaries. First, he cautioned against “[r]eplacing Western centrism with another form of intellectual narcissism and parochialism ...” (p. 106). Second, he wondered “how communication studies would engage in self-reflexivity and embrace a de-Westernized, cosmopolitan sensibility” (p. 106) without becoming vulnerable to hegemonic tendencies in scholarship. Third, he bemoaned the perpetuation of “[a] globalized field of communication studies [that] continues to speak with a strong Western accent” (p. 106). The Waisbord exhortation resonates with the International Communication Association’s commitment to advancing the communication discipline through a four-part action of inclusion, diversity, equity, and access (“On Inclusion,” 2019).

It is against the preceding background that we invite manuscripts on a variety of urban health communication issues addressed from any of the various research methodologies (e.g., empirical, qualitative, and ethnographic). Policy studies, concept and position papers are also welcome. Please note that we strongly recommend that communication writ large be a centerpiece of all submissions. Possible topics include the following:

• Sexual and reproductive health;
• Health promotions and campaigns;
• Emergency medical communication;
• Health-communication theory—a development, a test or an extension;
• Health status in underserved populations (minority groups, refugees in urban areas);
• Health disparities (e.g., by gender, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity);
• The role of social and traditional media in health communication;
• Methodological, investigative, and analytical issues—e.g., health questionnaires, mixed-methods design);
• Health education, literacy, awareness, and pedagogy; and
• Health management (e.g., organizational structure and trust in health systems).

Prof. Dr. Cornelius B. Pratt
Guest Editor

References

Chen, N.; Pei, Y.; Lin, X.; Wang, J.; Bu, X.; Liu, K.  Mental health status compared among rural-to-urban migrant, urban and rural school-age children in Guangdong province, BMC Psychiatry 2019, 19, 383, doi:10.1186/s12888-019-2356-4

Kanaskar, M. Urban health: Participation of the urban poor and communication. J. Health Manag. 2016, 18, 381-400, doi: 10.1177/0972063416663530

Malikhao, P.; Servaes, J. Health communication strategies for sustainable development in a globalized world.  In Strategic urban health communication, C. C. Okigbo, Ed.; Springer: New York, NY, USA, 2014; pp. 143-158

On inclusion, diversity, equity, and access: Statement from the executive committee of the International Communication Association. (2019, June/July). ICA Newsletter, 47(5), 1, 11-12. Available online: https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.icahdq.org/resource/resmgr/newsletters/2019/JUNEJULY19_47.5.pdf

Pratt, C. B. Beyond thinking and planning strategically to improve urban residents’ health.  In C. C. Okigbo (Ed.), Strategic urban health communication, C. C. Okigbo, Ed.; Springer: New York, NY, USA, 2014; pp. 131-141

Priest, N.; Paradies, Y.; Stewart, P.;  Luke, J. Racism and health among urban Aboriginal young people. BMC Pub.  Health 2011, 11, 568-577.

Vearey, J.; Thomson, K.; Sommers, T.; & Sprague, C.  Analyzing local-level responses to migration and urban health in Hillbrow: The Johannesburg migrant health forum.  BMC Pub. Health 2017, 17, 89-93,  doi: 10.1186/s12889-017-4352-2

Vearey, J.; Luginaah, I.; Magitta, N.F.; Shilla, D.J.;  Oni, T. (2019).  Urban health in Africa: A critical global public health priority.  BMC Public Health 2019, 19, 340, doi:10.1186/s12889-019-6674-8

Wang, D. Reduction but not elimination: Health inequalities among urban, migrant, and rural children in China—the moderating effect of the fathers' education level.  BMC Pub. Health 2019, 19, 1219,  doi:10.1186/s12889-019-7522-6.

Waisbord, S.R.  Communication: A post-discipline; Polity Press: Cambridge, UK, 2019.

Yang, W.; Kanavos, P.  The less healthy urban population: Income-related health inequality in China.  BMC Pub. Health 2012, 12, 804-819.

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• disparities
• education
• health communication theory
• media analyses
• mental health
• promotions and campaigns
• sexual and reproductive health
• U.N. Sustainable Development Goals