1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910462348503321

Autore

Rayner Geof

Titolo

Ecological public health : reshaping the conditions for good health / / Geof Rayner and Tim Lang

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Abingdon, Oxon : , : Earthscan, , 2012

ISBN

1-280-66493-2

9786613641861

9780203134801

0-203-13480-X

1-136-48271-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (433 pages)

Disciplina

362.1

Soggetti

Environmental health

Environmental degradation - Health aspects

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Ecological Public Health; Copyright; Contents; List of figures; List of tables; Preface: From the history to the future of public health; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; Part I: Images and models of public health; 1. Introducing the notion of Ecological Public Health; 2. Defining public health; 3. The received wisdom of public health; Part II: The transitions to be addressed by public health; Introduction to Part II; 4. Demographic Transition; 5. Epidemiological and Health Transition; 6. Urban Transition; 7. Energy Transition; 8. Economic Transition; 9. Nutrition Transition; 10. Biological and Ecological Transition11. Cultural Transition; 12. Democratic Transition; Conclusion to Part II: an overview of the transitions; Part III: Reshaping the conditions for good health; 13. The implications of Ecological Public Health

Sommario/riassunto

"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"--Provided by publisher.