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To mitigate, resist, or undo: Addressing structural influences on the health of urban populations

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  • Geronimus, A.T.

Abstract

Young to middle-aged residents of impoverished urban areas suffer extraordinary rates of excess mortality, to which deaths from chronic disease contribute heavily. Understanding of urban health disadvantages and attempts to reverse them will be incomplete if the structural factors that produced modern minority ghettos in central cities are not taken into account. Dynamic conceptions of the role of race/ethnicity in producing health inequalities must encompass (1) social relationships between majority and minority populations that privilege the majority population and (2) the autonomous institutions within minority populations that members develop and sustain to mitigate, resist, or undo the adverse effects of discrimination. Broad social and economic policies that intensify poverty or undermine autonomous protections can reap dire consequences for health. Following from this structural analysis and previous research, guiding principles for action and suggestions for continued research are proposed. Without taking poverty and race/ethnicity into account, public health professionals who hope to redress the health problems of urban life risk exaggerating the returns that can be expected of public health campaigns or overlooking important approaches for mounting successful interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • Geronimus, A.T., 2000. "To mitigate, resist, or undo: Addressing structural influences on the health of urban populations," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 90(6), pages 867-872.
  • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:2000:90:6:867-872_8
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    Cited by:

    1. Patricia Leandro-Reguillo & Amy L. Stuart, 2021. "Healthy Urban Environmental Features for Poverty Resilience: The Case of Detroit, USA," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Lauren Andres & John Round, 2015. "The Role of ‘Persistent Resilience’ within Everyday Life and Polity: Households Coping with Marginality within the ‘Big Society’," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 47(3), pages 676-690, March.
    3. Schwartz, Gabriel L. & Leifheit, Kathryn M. & Arcaya, Mariana C. & Keene, Danya, 2024. "Eviction as a community health exposure," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 340(C).
    4. Rachel A Morello-Frosch, 2002. "Discrimination and the Political Economy of Environmental Inequality," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 20(4), pages 477-496, August.
    5. repec:pri:crcwel:wp10-04-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Chau-kiu Cheung & Kwan-kwok Leung, 2012. "Social Mitigation of the Impact of Urban Renewal on Residents’ Morale," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(3), pages 523-543, May.
    7. Samantha Teixeira & Anita Zuberi, 2016. "Mapping the Racial Inequality in Place: Using Youth Perceptions to Identify Unequal Exposure to Neighborhood Environmental Hazards," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, August.
    8. McNeill, Lorna Haughton & Kreuter, Matthew W. & Subramanian, S.V., 2006. "Social Environment and Physical activity: A review of concepts and evidence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 1011-1022, August.
    9. Rachel Tolbert Kimbro & Jeanne Brooks-Gunn & Sara McLanahan, 2010. "Neighborhood Context, Poverty, and Urban Children's Outdoor Play," Working Papers 1226, Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Research on Child Wellbeing..
    10. Irma T. Elo & Greg L. Drevenstedt, 2004. "Cause-specific contributions to black-white differences in male mortality from 1960 to 1995," Demographic Research Special Collections, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 2(10), pages 255-276.
    11. Blake Poland & Anne Gloger & Garrett T. Morgan & Norene Lach & Suzanne F. Jackson & Rylan Urban & Imara Rolston, 2021. "A Connected Community Approach: Citizens and Formal Institutions Working Together to Build Community-Centred Resilience," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(19), pages 1-17, September.
    12. Coulon, Sandra M. & Wilson, Dawn K. & Egan, Brent M., 2013. "Associations among environmental supports, physical activity, and blood pressure in African-American adults in the PATH trial," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 108-115.
    13. Arline Geronimus & John Bound & Annie Ro, 2014. "Residential Mobility Across Local Areas in the United States and the Geographic Distribution of the Healthy Population," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(3), pages 777-809, June.
    14. Judith Schröder & Susanne Moebus & Julita Skodra, 2022. "Selected Research Issues of Urban Public Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-28, May.
    15. Rodriguez, Javier M. & Geronimus, Arline T. & Bound, John & Dorling, Danny, 2015. "Black lives matter: Differential mortality and the racial composition of the U.S. electorate, 1970–2004," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 136, pages 193-199.
    16. Viruell-Fuentes, Edna A. & Miranda, Patricia Y. & Abdulrahim, Sawsan, 2012. "More than culture: Structural racism, intersectionality theory, and immigrant health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2099-2106.
    17. Carole Green, 2005. "Race, Ethnicity, And Social Security Retirement Age In The Us," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 117-143.
    18. Rebecca Adkins Fletcher, 2017. "The social life of health behaviors: The political economy and cultural context of health practices," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(2), pages 213-224, June.

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