Cells-to-Society Approaches

The urban environment is characterized by physical and social environments that are the causes of health. At the same time, the production of health ultimately rests on the embedding of health in human populations, on these social and physical environments “getting under the skin.” Cells-to-society approaches consider how features of context manifest, through biologically mediated processes, as health. This chapter explores how, in the face of rising urbanization on a global scale, cells-to-society approaches can help us understand the health of urban populations and open up novel areas of inquiry about how we may create better cities to produce population health.