Reason and protest in the new urban public health movement: an observation on the sociological analysis of political discourse in the 'healthy city'.

Abstract

The urban environment represents an important social and geographical focus for the international new urban public health movement in general and the World Health Organization's 'Healthy Cities' project in particular. Existing and new policies of relevance to urban health are however infused with notions of cause, effect and ideas of appropriate intervention that reflect highly malleable and more or less conscious expressions of rationality, self-interest and organizational purpose--factors central to sociological analysis of the political discourse and objectives associated with the new urban public health movement. This article begins to develop a research agenda in this respect through consideration of the 'language' of policy and reference to Habermas' idea of 'communicative reason'. It is argued that case-study based research into the discourse of the new urban public health movement has to balance empirical accounts with analysis of the 'policy ontologies' that confront and underpin the mobilizations and has, secondly, to consider the 'communicative capacity and orientation' of such initiatives.