Urban Crisis: Public Health at the intersection of economic & social change

This research aims to rethink urban crisis by expanding conceptual and empirical understanding of how crises are governed across the interrelated spheres of health, social, and economic policy. As traditional forms of state service provision are disrupted through state-led restructuring under crisis, the pressure for innovative urban solutions and competition for resources increases. Using Athens, Manchester, and Santiago as case studies, this research will identify the economic, political and social stresses involved in providing spaces of care to the urban poor, who are disproportionately affected by crises, and the policies and politics involved in attempting to manage intersecting urban crises. Urban service innovation has been a key area of development for government, industry, and academia. For example, the UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 and 11, on health and urbanization respectively, have highlighted the importance of a wholistic understanding of the relationship between health, well-being, and sustainable urban environments. Urban health is one of eight key challenges set out by the European Commission's platform on the Future of Cities. Urban Health in Latin America and the Caribbean is a research priority for the International Science Council, and global consultancies such as ARUP have focused on health and care proximities as key in urban development and design.
The findings of the research program will help solidify and expand the evidence base on the links between urban crises, governance, experimentation, and the politics and practices of health and social care. I will make two key contributions. First, the project will make a novel contribution to understanding the spread and effects of state-led restructuring of spaces of health and social care in cities during and after urban crisis, advancing an empirical and conceptual agenda that centres health in understanding the urban politics of crisis. Second it will identify how cities negotiate the...