IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v22y2025i2p172-d1578072.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interrogating Healthy Community Discourse in Municipal Policies: Priorities of a Medium-Sized CMA in Ontario, Canada

Author

Listed:
  • Keely Stenberg

    (School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Jennifer Dean

    (School of Planning, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

Abstract

The World Health Organization’s Healthy Cities movement recommends action on the determinants of health and health equity. While economic and ecological circumstances have been studied with respect to health outcomes, research shows that the relationship between these broad determinants and population health is not always clear. Municipal governments, whose relative proximity to individuals means that they are optimally situated to address local health concerns, can demonstrate political will for healthy communities by developing health community policies. Therefore, the aim of this study is to interrogate how the idea of a ‘healthy community’ has been conceptualized by municipal governments in order to inform the future uptake of the concept. This study uses a post-structural policy analysis to examine government discourse on healthy communities in a medium-sized census metropolitan area (CMA) in Ontario, Canada. The findings highlight economic growth and ecological sustainability as priorities for fostering a healthy community. With emphasis on long-standing issues linking health outcomes to broader societal conditions, this study calls on municipal governments to explicitly consider the health impacts of healthy community strategies and adoption of a Health-in-All-Policies (HiAP) approach.

Suggested Citation

  • Keely Stenberg & Jennifer Dean, 2025. "Interrogating Healthy Community Discourse in Municipal Policies: Priorities of a Medium-Sized CMA in Ontario, Canada," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(2), pages 1-17, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:172-:d:1578072
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/2/172/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/22/2/172/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Helen Van Eyk & Elizabeth Harris & Fran Baum & Toni Delany-Crowe & Angela Lawless & Colin MacDougall, 2017. "Health in All Policies in South Australia—Did It Promote and Enact an Equity Perspective?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-25, October.
    2. Caroline Barakat & Theodore Konstantinidis, 2023. "A Review of the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status Change and Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(13), pages 1-13, June.
    3. Kindig, D.A. & Stoddart, G., 2003. "What is population health?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(3), pages 380-383.
    4. Boswell, John & Cairney, Paul & St Denny, Emily, 2019. "The politics of institutionalizing preventive health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 202-210.
    5. Guglielmin, Maria & Muntaner, Carles & O’Campo, Patricia & Shankardass, Ketan, 2018. "A scoping review of the implementation of health in all policies at the local level," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 284-292.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tanja Brüchert & Paula Quentin & Sabine Baumgart & Gabriele Bolte, 2021. "Barriers, Facilitating Factors, and Intersectoral Collaboration for Promoting Active Mobility for Healthy Aging—A Qualitative Study within Local Government in Germany," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(7), pages 1-17, April.
    2. Ben Cave & Ryngan Pyper & Birgitte Fischer-Bonde & Sarah Humboldt-Dachroeden & Piedad Martin-Olmedo, 2021. "Lessons from an International Initiative to Set and Share Good Practice on Human Health in Environmental Impact Assessment," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-23, February.
    3. Maite Morteruel & Amaia Bacigalupe & Elena Aldasoro & Isabel Larrañaga & Elena Serrano, 2020. "Health Impact Assessments in Spain: Have They Been Effective?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.
    4. Moss, Charlie & Anselmi, Laura & Morciano, Marcello & Munford, Luke & Stokes, Jonathan & Sutton, Matt, 2023. "Analysing changes to the flow of public funding within local health and care systems: An adaptation of the System of Health Accounts framework to a local health system in England," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    5. Maria Denisa Vasilescu & Simona Andreea Apostu & Eva Militaru & Eglantina Hysa, 2022. "Public Opinion on European Health Policy, Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-17, April.
    6. Olivier Jacques & Alain Noel, 2022. "Austerity Reduces Public Health Investment," CIRANO Working Papers 2022s-02, CIRANO.
    7. Niyi Awofeso, 2011. "Leprosy: International Public Health Policies and Public Health Eras," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 1(1), pages 1-13, September.
    8. Antonio Sarría-Santamera & Alua Yeskendir & Tilektes Maulenkul & Binur Orazumbekova & Abduzhappar Gaipov & Iñaki Imaz-Iglesia & Lorena Pinilla-Navas & Teresa Moreno-Casbas & Teresa Corral, 2021. "Population Health and Health Services: Old Challenges and New Realities in the COVID-19 Era," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(4), pages 1-5, February.
    9. Fabiola M. Perez-Lua & Alec M. Chan-Golston & Nancy J. Burke & Maria-Elena De Trinidad Young, 2023. "The Influence of Organizational Aspects of the U.S. Agricultural Industry and Socioeconomic and Political Conditions on Farmworkers’ COVID-19 Workplace Safety," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(23), pages 1-19, December.
    10. M Obucina & N Harris & JA Fitzgerald & A Chai & K Radford & A Ross & L Carr & N Vecchio, 2018. "The Triple Aim framework in the context of primary healthcare: A systematic literature review," Discussion Papers in Economics economics:201804, Griffith University, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics.
    11. Jacques, Olivier & Noël, Alain, 2022. "The politics of public health investments," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    12. Rafael Burgos-Calderón & Santos Ángel Depine & Gustavo Aroca-Martínez, 2021. "Population Kidney Health. A New Paradigm for Chronic Kidney Disease Management," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-14, June.
    13. Nishita Dsouza & Anitha Devadason & Araliya M. Senerat & Patrin Watanatada & David Rojas-Rueda & Giselle Sebag, 2023. "Sustainability and Equity in Urban Development (S&EUD): A Content Analysis of “Bright Spots” from the Accelerating City Equity (ACE) Project," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-16, April.
    14. Ehsanul Huda Chowdhury & Brita Backlund Rambaree & Gloria Macassa, 2021. "CSR Reporting of Stakeholders’ Health: Proposal for a New Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-10, January.
    15. Djoeke van Dale & Lidwien Lemmens & Marieke Hendriksen & Nella Savolainen & Péter Nagy & Edit Marosi & Michela Eigenmann & Ingrid Stegemann & Heather L. Rogers, 2020. "Recommendations for Effective Intersectoral Collaboration in Health Promotion Interventions: Results from Joint Action CHRODIS-PLUS Work Package 5 Activities," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-20, September.
    16. Amri, Michelle & Chatur, Ali & O'Campo, Patricia, 2022. "An umbrella review of intersectoral and multisectoral approaches to health policy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 315(C).
    17. Struijs, Jeroen N. & Drewes, Hanneke W. & Heijink, Richard & Baan, Caroline A., 2015. "How to evaluate population management? Transforming the Care Continuum Alliance population health guide toward a broadly applicable analytical framework," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(4), pages 522-529.
    18. Jan Polcyn & Liton Chandra Voumik & Mohammad Ridwan & Samrat Ray & Viktoriia Vovk, 2023. "Evaluating the Influences of Health Expenditure, Energy Consumption, and Environmental Pollution on Life Expectancy in Asia," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-18, February.
    19. Kearns, Robin A., 2007. "Creating a place for population health: Interpreting the spaces of a new School in Auckland, New Zealand," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 125-137, July.
    20. Main, Caitlin & Haig, Madeleine & Kanavos, Panos, 2022. "The promise of population health management in England: from theory to implementation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 116942, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:22:y:2025:i:2:p:172-:d:1578072. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.