SDHI 10th Anniversary – Happy Birthday

The challenges involved in achieving practice change: SDHI seminar and discussion now online

Dr Roger Dunston, Associate Professor, Centre for Research in Learning and Change, University of Technology, Sydney presented an SDHI seminar on 19th September 2013 on the question ‘Why is significant practice change is so difficult to achieve?’ He drew on a range of social science theories and ethnographic examples to stimulate discussion of the audience, which included students and academics from various disciplines at the universities of Dundee and St Andrews as well as health and social care professionals. The issue of scale was a key focus: How can systemic and organisational change filter down to behavioural change and how can individual role modelling contribute to organisational change? Does ‘best practice’ exist and if so, is it transferable? How can organisational change be achieved at the intersection of multiple professions with different ‘cultures’ and foci? What are the lessons for interprofessional learning and teaching? Watch the video and the discussion.

Forthcoming Seminar – Mining the management literature to improve healthcare

SDHI (in partnership with the School of Management, University of St Andrews) are delighted to announce the following seminar ‘Mining the management literature to improve healthcare’ which will be led by Karen Harlos, Associate Professor, Department of Business and Administration, University of Winnipeg.  This FREE seminar will be held in The Boardroom, Gateway Building, University of St Andrews at 3.00pm on Tuesday 8^th October.

For further information please see seminar flyer – Karen Harlos Seminar 8 October 2013 – St Andrews

Conference: Critical Geographies of Urban Health and Well-Being

A two-day conference and open discussion organised by the RGS-IBG Urban Geography Research Group.

Dates: 21-22 November 2013

Location: University of Southampton, UK

Preliminary Call for Contributions

This year’s UGRG Conference will explore the relationship between urban space and health and well-being, of how theories of urban space can inform health and vice-versa. Health and well-being may be defined using the WHO’s framework, in which ‘health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’ This conference is interested in health and well-being research that is not just ‘in’ but also ‘of’ urban space, overlapping with, informing and being informed by urban theory. This can include spatial inequality, policy mobilities, global cities and place effects, but also therapeutic landscapes, food deserts and obesogenic environments.

We are interested in bringing together a range of perspectives on urban health, including public health, urban geography and urban studies, food studies, sociology of health, and town planning. To take the example of town planning and health, Corburn (2009) emphasizes that urban places and the city planning processes that shape them—particularly those processes governing land use, housing, transportation, job opportunities, social services, the quality of the urban environment and opportunities for public participation in local government—are increasingly understood as powerful determinants of population health. Premature death, and the unnecessary burdens of disease and suffering, is disproportionately concentrated in city neighborhoods of the poor, where residential segregation concentrates poverty, liquor stores outnumber supermarkets, toxic sites are adjacent to playgrounds, and public resources go to incarceration rather than education.

Guiding topics include (but are not limited to) the following:

-critical evaluation of normative health concepts such as the ‘healthy city’ movement, therapeutic landscapes

-connecting urban and health theories

-migration and health

-gender, urban space and health

-marginal urban places, marginal health?

-structural violence vs interpersonal violence through city spaces

-critical disability studies

-spaces of care in the city

-urban health governance: governing un/healthy populations, the ‘sick’ city, the ‘bacteriological’ city, urban drug policy

-biopolitics and biopower of urban life and death

-global mobility of immaculate health policies

-everyday mobility and health

-city spaces of mental health

Papers are welcomed from researchers (including PhD students) at any stage of their careers. We will also be holding a ‘pecha-kucha’ session as we did last year.

The deadline for 200 word abstracts is due 5pm Friday, 27 September 2013 to be submitted to Southampton’s Online Store: http://go.soton.ac.uk/5lo

(note that the abstract submission is separate from the registration)

The registration deadline will follow within 3-4 weeks, again through the Online Store. Register as early as possible – places will be limited to 50. Standard registration will be £75; for post-graduate students and unemployed, it will be £35. Please visit online store.

Please contact Geoff DeVerteuil g.p.deverteuil @soton.ac.uk if you have any questions.

Please visit the UGRG website for this information and further updates: http://urban-geography.org.uk/

New Geographies of Disability – Mini Conference at the University of Dundee

This mini-conference will showcase some of the most innovative geographical research on disability. The presenters have all made significant contributions to the development of a spatial and contextual interpretation of disability, now being widely adopted in disability studies. The event will reflect on the latest theoretical and methodological approaches to studying disability, and the implications for policy and practice.

When: Weds 16th October, 1.15-4.30pm

Where: Dalhousie 3G05 Lecture Theatre 2 (just off the main foyer)

Tea/coffee will be provided.

Who: Presenters:

Dr. Louise Holt, Loughborough University

Dr. Jayne Sellick, Durham University

Dr. Ed Hall, University of Dundee

Discussant:

Dr. Rob Wilton, McMaster University, Canada (by Skype) (tbc)

People interest in attending please contact Dr Edward Hall E.C.Hall @dundee.ac.uk

Forthcoming Seminar – Why is significant practice change in health so difficult to achieve?

SDHI are delighted to announce the following seminar ‘Why is significant practice change in health so difficult to achieve? Insights from practice theories and ethnographic research’ which will be led by Roger Dunston, Associate Professor, Centre for Research in Learning and Change, University of Technology, Sydney.  This FREE seminar will be held in Room 1G06, Dalhousie Building, University of Dundee at 3.00pm on Thursday 19th September.   If you would like to attend, please contact Rosanne Bell r.c.bell @dundee.ac.uk

For further information please see seminar flyer – Roger Dunston seminar 19 Sept 2013