Advancing health rights and tackling inequalities : interrogating community development and participatory praxis / Anuj Kapilashrami, Neil Quinn,and Abhijit Das.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kapilashrami, Anuj, author.

Quinn, Neil, author.

Das, Abhijit, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public health--Social aspects.

Public health.

Right to health.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (viii, 232 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bristol : Policy Press, 2025.

Summary:

The need for healthier, more resilient societies has never been more urgent. This timely book reveals how empowered and organized communities can lead this change. It offers policymakers, academics and activists real-world examples of organizing and collective actions from across the global North and South.

Contents:

Front Cover

Advancing Health Rights and Tackling Inequalities: Interrogating Community Development and Participatory Praxis

Copyright Page

Dedication

Table of Contents

List of figures, boxes, and case studies

Acknowledgements

Part I Participation, power, and public health: historical influences and modern imperatives

1 Introduction

Why this book?

Examining the backdrop and fault lines of organising for health justice amid poly-.crises

Changing landscape of health activism

What this book offers?

The scope of our enquiry

Questioning the colonial epistemic gaze in community participation

About this collaboration: introduction to authors' journeys

The right to health and the struggle for health justice

The role of communities and social participation in the struggle for health justice

Competing normative frameworks underpinning community participation in health

Outline of chapters

Part I

Part II

Part III

2 History of community participation in public health:. from primary care movement to UHC

A brief chronology of community participation in healthcare and programmes

Community health in community development

How participation affects health service delivery: state of evidence and examples from practice

Participation at a crossroads

Participation and identity

Participation and the neoliberal wave

Conclusion

3 'Communities', power, and participation: unpacking concepts from praxis

Community: a contested idea

Concept of participation and participatory development

Typologies of participation

The gap between the rhetoric and reality of participation

Community development and its theoretical underpinnings

Marxist theories

Feminist theory and praxis

Pluralist theories

Post-.modernist theories

Social movement theory.

The practice of community development in an international context

Western Europe and North America

Community development experiences in the (post)colonial world

Part II Pathways to health justice: community organising, collective action, and accountability

4 Engaging communities at the margins to reduce health inequalities

Health inequities: who are left behind? Who loses?

Barriers to meaningful engagement of communities on the margins

Promising practices centering people's voices

5 Building sustainable social movements for the right to health

Introduction

Social movements: origins, theoretical advances and deficits

Theorising health movements

Processes of mobilisation and strategies employed in health movements

Key issues in contemporary health movements

Neoliberalism and individualisation of resistance

Depoliticisation and bureaucratisation of civil society

Commercial interests and movement building

Uneasy alliances and contested politics

Conclusion: Charting a new agenda for social movements

6 Addressing political, economic, and commercial forces shaping health

Political determinants, globalisation, and the struggles for the right to health

Effects of globalisation on poverty and inequality

Pushback against neoliberal reforms and economic globalisation

Commercial determinants of health

Facing the challenge of the environmental determinants of health

Climate change and environmental activism

Conclusion: Continuing challenges of politics, economics, and health

7 Strengthening accountability for the right to health

Introduction to accountability

Theoretical overview and historical context

Operationalising accountability

'Accountability ecosystem':. community organising for systems reform

Critical gaps on social accountability.

Corporate accountability and citizens action

Conclusion: Engendering future agenda for accountable systems and societies

Part III Tools for transformation and organising for change: arts, media, and participatory action research

8 Community activism in action

The COVID-.19 pandemic: State response and community activism

Human rights in times of pandemics: a brief history

Pandemics, public health and human rights

Advocacy: a different form of civil society activism

Advocacy against coercive population policies and for reproductive health and rights in India

Reflections from advocacy practice

Strategies for community activism

9 The role of arts, social media, and participatory action research in advancing health rights

Using the arts within community development

Criticisms in the use of the arts

The role of mass media and social media

Critiques of mass and social media in community development and health practice

Using social media as a health advocacy tool to influence decision-.makers and build coalitions for change

Participatory research

The historical development of participatory research

Core concepts of participatory research approaches

Participatory research in practice

10 Conclusion:. Community organising and collective action as countervailing power for healthy and just societies

Why are we here?

Countering this loss of political and economic power demands a strong countervailing power from below

Glossary

Notes

Chapter 1

Chapter 3

Chapter 5

Chapter 10

References

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 12 Sep 2025).

ISBN:

1-4473-6143-1

1-4473-6140-7

1-4473-6142-3

OCLC:

1519118957