Review

But does it work?

HEALTHY CITIES: RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
Edited by John K Davies & Michael P Kelly
Routledge, 1993, £11.99

Over the past 8 years or so, Healthy Cities has grown from an idea piloted in WHO’s European region into a worldwide movement. By any standards, this must count as some kind of success.

Yet doubts remain — among Healthy Cities enthusiasts as well as sceptics — as to whether there have been any real and additional health benefits as a result of all those millions of person-hours spent in meetings promoting ‘intersectoral collaboration’.

The theoretical and practical issues which arise in the process of trying to ‘do research’ into Healthy Cities are the subject of this book, which raises an awful lot more questions than it is able to answer.

One of the most interesting questions is trying to establish just what kind of animal Healthy Cities acually is. In a fascinating chapter reminiscent of three blind men comparing notes on an elephant, Lisa Curtice imagines the differing — and sometimes contradictory — definitions of the movement provided by a range of academics, policymakers and activists.

Her explorations throw up a new question: if Healthy Cities is, in essence, a social/political movement akin to feminism or environmentalism then why should research into its ‘effectiveness’ be necessary at all? The pre-occupation with research seems to arise from a need to be seen as a neutral and rationalistic project (and therefore a suitable recipient of public funds) rather than a political one.

This may account for the rapid spread of the movement, but could ultimately prove to be its undoing.