Vakcoördinatie “Governing Healthy Cities” (2018)
Voor de master Health Economics, Policy & Law van de Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management (ESHPM) coördineer ik het vak Governing Healthy Cities (blok 5, studiejaar 2017/18). De thema’s die aan bod komen zijn o.a. positieve gezondheid, (sociale) veerkracht en nieuwe vormen van governance (urban labs). Daarnaast werken we samen met veldpartijen en gaan studenten prangende kennisvragen omtrent ‘gezonde steden’ oppakken.
The governing ideal of ‘the healthy city’ represents a fundamental shift in how we view health: from individual biophysical models of health towards holistic notions of health that presuppose interconnectedness of place, health and well-being of communities. This conceptual shift becomes visible in new discourses on ‘positive health’ and ‘social resilience’ that we will unravel and apply during this course. These new discourses are not just words/visions, they also inspire policymakers and professionals to adopt new experimental approaches to organize healthy cities: such as cross-sector collaboration (i.e. joining up health, welfare, work, education), community ‘greening’ initiatives and urban labs that promote resilience in neighbourhoods.