"This is a spectacular resource for practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and students interested in improving the lives and health of individuals and families in urban settings. This book provides the most current frameworks, research, and approaches for understanding how unique features of the urban physical and social environments that shape the health of over half of the world's population that is already residing in large cities. Its interdisciplinary research and practice focus is a welcome innovation."
?Hortensia Amaro, associate dean, Urban Health Research; Distinguished Professor, Bouve College of Health Sciences; and director, Institute on Urban Health Research, Northeastern University
"Urban Health and Society: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Research and Practice provides students in public health, urban planning, social work, and other professions with the critical knowledge and practical guidance they need to work as effective members of interdisciplinary teams aimed at studying and addressing urban health problems. Throughout the chapters, the book's attention to community participation, social justice, and equity as well as interdisciplinary research methods make it an invaluable resource."
?Barbara A. Israel, professor, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan
"The book will be of great interest to academics, politicians, planners, and public health professionals attempting to understand or reduce urban health risks, create safe urban environments, and deliver effective and sustainable health services and programs to urban populations."
?Stephen Lepore, professor and PhD program director, Department of Public Health, Temple University
Table of Contents
Preface xi
The Contributors xiii
PART ONE INTRODUCTION 1
1 FRAMEWORKS FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY URBAN HEALTH RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 3
Nicholas Freudenberg, Susan Klitzman, Susan Saegert
Introduction 4
The Implications of Urban Life for Health 6
Levels and Types of Interdisciplinarity 8
Conundrums in Interdisciplinarity 10
Interdisciplinarity and Theories of Knowledge 11
Methodological Challenges and Approaches to Interdisciplinarity 12
Interdisciplinarity: Which Disciplines When? 12
Role Defi nitions in Interdisciplinary Research and Practice 13
Multiple Levels of Intervention 14
Summary 15
2 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE PRAXIS: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY URBAN PUBLIC HEALTH 19
Tom Angotti, Julie Sze
Environmental Justice and Public Health 22
The Built Environment, Urban Planning, and Urban Public Health 23
Environmental and Social Justice, Interdisciplinarity, and the Politics of Knowledge 26
Asthma and the Environmental Justice Campaign for a Solid Waste Plan in New York City 29
Asian Immigrant and Refugee Organizing for Environmental Health and Housing in the Bay Area 34
Conclusion 37
Summary 38
PART TWO INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO STUDYING CAUSES OF URBAN HEALTH PROBLEMS 43
3 INTERDISCIPLINARY, PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH ON URBAN FOOD ENVIRONMENTS AND DIETARY BEHAVIORS 45
Shannon N. Zenk, Amy J. Schulz, Angela M. Odoms-Young, Murlisa Lockett
Introduction 46
Determinants of Retail Food Environments in Cities 47
Using CBPR to Understand the Health Implications of Detroit’s Food Environment 48
Directions for Future Research 54
Summary 56
4 AN ECOLOGICAL MODEL OF URBAN CHILD HEALTH 63
Kim T. Ferguson, Pilyoung Kim, James R. Dunn, Gary W. Evans
Introduction 64
An Ecological Model 64
Bronfenbrenner’s Bioecological Model 65
Influences on Children’s Health in the Urban Context 68
Research Across Multiple Levels 76
Agenda for Future Research and Practice 78
Summary 80
5 GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, AND HEALTH DISPARITIES 93
Juliana Maantay, Andrew R. Maroko, Carlos Alicea, A. H. Strelnick
Introduction 94
Community-Based Participatory Research 95
Multilevel Models of Causation 96
Role of Geographic Information Systems 96
Environmental Justice and Health in the Bronx 97
Methods 101
Findings 110
Implications of Findings 111
Lessons on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Urban Health Research 117
Conclusion 119
Summary 119
6 RACIAL INEQUALITY IN HEALTH AND THE POLICY-INDUCED BREAKDOWN OF AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES 127
Arline T. Geronimus, J. Phillip Thompson
Introduction 128
Racialized Ideologies: Developmentalism, Economism, and the American Creed 131
Implications for Public Policy 138
Building a Movement for Policy Reform 144
Summary 148
7 AN INTERDISCIPLINARY AND SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF THE U.S. FORECLOSURE CRISIS AS IT RELATES TO HEALTH 161
Susan Saegert, Kimberly Libman, Desiree Fields
Housing and Health: What’s the Connection? 162
The Social Ecology of Foreclosure 164
The Research and Its Context 166
Focus Group Analysis and the Emergence of Health as an Issue 170
Foreclosure and Public Health 173
Neoliberalism, the Foreclosure Crisis, and Health Consequences 174
Conclusion 176
Summary 178
PART THREE INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO INTERVENTIONS TO PROMOTE URBAN HEALTH 183
8 TRANSDISCIPLINARY ACTION RESEARCH ON TEEN SMOKING PREVENTION 185
Juliana Fuqua, Daniel Stokols, Richard Harvey, Atusa Baghery, Larry Jamner
Introduction 186
Review of Transdisciplinary Action Research 186
Transdisciplinary Action Research Cycle 187
Translating Transdisciplinary Research into Community Intervention and Policy 189
Factors Facilitating or Impeding Collaboration Among TPC Members 196
Implications and Additional Lessons Learned from the TPC Study 205
Future Directions 207
Summary 211
9 HOW VULNERABILITIES AND CAPACITIES SHAPE POPULATION HEALTH AFTER DISASTERS 217
Craig Hadley, Sasha Rudenstine, Sandro Galea
Social and Economic Determinants of Health After Disasters 218
Humanitarian Crises in Angola and the Balkans 223
Hurricane Katrina 224
September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attacks on New York City 226
Implications for Prevention and Intervention 229
Summary 231
10 IMMIGRANTS AND URBAN AGING: TOWARD A POLICY FRAMEWORK 239
Marianne Fahs, Anahí Viladrich, Nina S. Parikh
The New Urban Demography: Baby Boomers and Immigrants 240
Economic and Social Influences on Aging and Health Policy 242
Social and Environmental Considerations 246
Toward a Conceptual Framework 254
A Public Health Research and Policy Agenda 255
Summary 258
11 REVERSING THE TIDE OF TYPE 2 DIABETES AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS THROUGH INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH 271
Hollie Jones, Leandris C. Liburd
A Dialogue Between Two Disciplines: Psychology and Medical Anthropology 273
Ethnic Identity and the Experience of Being African American with Type 2 Diabetes 278
Interdisciplinary Research Methods 281
Integrating Social Psychology and Medical Anthropology to Reduce the Burden of Diabetes 284
Summary 285
PART FOUR PUTTING INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES INTO PRACTICE 293
12 USING INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES TO STRENGTHEN URBAN HEALTH RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 295
Nicholas Freudenberg, Susan Klitzman, Susan Saegert
Doing Interdisciplinary Research and Practice 296
Defining the Problem 299
Creating a Process for Interdisciplinary Work 302
Choosing Institutional and Community Partners 305
Influencing Policy and Practice 309
Evaluating Impact 311
Wanted: Interdisciplinary Researchers and Practitioners 312
Summary 314
GLOSSARY 319
INDEX 325
