On becoming healthier communities: poverty, territorial development and planning

Abstract

Healthy communities seek to improve the health of their citizens as a central aim of development policies and develop possibilities for health related ‘economic integration’. They depend strongly on Municipal initiative in animating cross-sectoral policy integration and empowering civil society. Contemporary conditions require ‘social innovation’ depending on central paradigm shifts in science, in moving beyond ‘deprivation-oriented’ anti-poverty action, in linking health to territorial development and in developing adequate planning approaches. This paper discusses the above mentioned paradigm shifts, illustrates possibilities of action in health promotion and suggests the possibility of ‘learning from practice’ on the basis of the experience of the WHO Healthy Cities Movement.