Is Local Better? Evolving Hybrid Theorising for Local Health Policies

Abstract

AbstractGood arguments can be made why the deployment of theories and concepts from political science disciplines to public health and health promotion fields yields novel and actionable insights. But this chapter purports to show that there may be a qualitative difference for the effectiveness of this deployment across jurisdictions. It shows how the application of a comprehensive and hybrid array of political science theories to public health issues at the ‘local’ level generates relevant and actionable insights for policy advocacy, agenda setting, prioritisation, implementation and learning. It draws on work in a range of Healthy Cities and local government settings around the world and shows that, although local is better, health policymaking always has glocal dimensions.