Ecological Public Health: Reshaping the Conditions for Good Health

Author:   Geof Rayner (City University London, UK) ,  Tim Lang
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN:  

9781844078318


Pages:   432
Publication Date:   23 April 2012
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Our Price $336.00 Quantity:  
Add to Cart

Share |

Ecological Public Health: Reshaping the Conditions for Good Health


Add your own review!

Overview

What is public health? To some, it is about the infrastructure for health -- drains, water, food, housing. These require engineering and expert management. To others, it's about the State using medicine or health education to prevent the public harming itself through poor lifestyles. This book, part historical, part prospective, argues that public health needs an overhaul. It should return to and modernize itself around ecological principles. Ecological public health thinking addresses what are described as four levels of existence: the material, biological, social and cognitive worlds. The long tradition of public health has always been reactive, responding to and transforming the relationship between people, their circumstances and the biological world of nature and bodies. The authors show how twenty-first century public health is being shaped by a number of long-term transitions, some long recognized, others not. These transitions are demographic, epidemiological, urban, energy, economic, nutrition, biological, cultural and democracy itself. Facing them all is required if the health of people and the planet are to be integrated. Ecological public health thinking, the authors argue, has been marginalized partly because it has lacked clear analysis, and partly because of the scale and complexity of the issues which need to be addressed. Public health thinking has partly lost its way because it has been subsumed into the problems rather than championing solutions. Often linked to the State, it has adapted to consumerism rather than championing citizenship. Returning to ecological public health requires stronger and more daring combinations of interdisciplinary work, movements and professions, and a reinvigoration of institutional purpose.

Full Product Details

Author:   Geof Rayner (City University London, UK) ,  Tim Lang
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Earthscan Ltd
Weight:   0.960kg
ISBN:  

9781844078318


ISBN 10:   1844078310
Pages:   432
Publication Date:   23 April 2012
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  General ,  Tertiary & Higher Education
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

Table of Contents

Preface Acknowledgements Glossary Part 1: Images and Models of Public Health 1. Introducing the Notion of Ecological Public Health 2. Defining Public Health 3. The Recevied Wisdom of Public Health Part 2: The Transitions which Public Health has to Address Introduction to Part 2 4. Demographic Transition 5. Epidemiological and Health Transition 6. Urban Transition 7. Energy Transition 8. Economic Transition 9. The Nutrition Transition 10. Biological and Ecological Transition 11. Cultural Transition 12. Democratic Transition Conclusion to Part 2 – An Overview of the Transitions Part 3: Reshaping the Conditions for Good Health 13. The Implications of Ecological Public Health References Index

Reviews

Rich in understanding the history of the public health movement, the authors argue that a new ecological sense of public health is emerging based on the recognition of the limits on nature, that nature no longer offers an endless cornucopia of its resources for human use or that the biological world can be ceaselessly altered to human advantage. - Food Ethics Council Newsletter, July 2012 ...this book offers an exemplary account of ecological thinking and is extremely persuasive in arguing for the adoption of an ecological perspective when addressing the seemingly intractable health problems of modern society. It has the scope to invigorate public health, as both project and practice, by providing new and important ways of thinking about both the aetiology of health and respondent intervention activities. As a result, I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in public health, from students and academics to policy makers and practitioners. - Rhiannon Evans, Cardiff University, in Critical Public Health (2013, vol.23)


Ecological Public Health came Highly Commended in the Public Health category for the 2013 BMA Medical Book and Patient Information Awards. Rich in understanding the history of the public health movement, the authors argue that a new ecological sense of public health is emerging based on the recognition of the limits on nature, that nature no longer offers an endless cornucopia of its resources for human use or that the biological world can be ceaselessly altered to human advantage. - Food Ethics Council Newsletter, July 2012 ...this book offers an exemplary account of ecological thinking and is extremely persuasive in arguing for the adoption of an ecological perspective when addressing the seemingly intractable health problems of modern society. It has the scope to invigorate public health, as both project and practice, by providing new and important ways of thinking about both the aetiology of health and respondent intervention activities. As a result, I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in public health, from students and academics to policy makers and practitioners. - Rhiannon Evans, Cardiff University, in Critical Public Health (2013, vol.23) Their analysis of the food system, its current negative impacts and the potential for change is exemplary, drawing on their own scholarship and work with policy makers... Overall, the authors' work on historical and conceptual synthesis is illuminating. - Donald C. Cole, University of Toronto, Canada


Author Information

Geof Rayner is an independent expert in Health, Wellness and Nutrition, and is currently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Food Policy, City University London. Tim Lang is Professor of Food Policy at City University London and has authored or co-authored a number of influential books including The Atlas of Food (Earthscan, 2003 and 2008) and Food Wars (Earthscan, 2004).

Tab Content 6

Author Website:  

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

No review item found!

Add your own review!

Countries Available

All regions
Latest Reading Guide

ls

Shopping Cart
Your cart is empty
Shopping cart
Mailing List