From urban health to the practical application of critical urban health justice
What is Urban Health?
There are many different definitions of urban health,to me the easiest way to define it is the investigation of how your local environment impacts your health and wellbeing. The urban health challenges in one part of the world will be different in another part of the world. For example, the challenges that people experience in the London Borough of Lambeth, will be different to the challenges that people face in the Dansoman.
What is urban health justice?
Urban health justice is an area that aims to redress the planning and public health inequities created and legitimised by colonialism.
What is critical urban health justice?
Critical urban health justice, examines the role of anti-Blackness and intersecting forms of discrimination in creating, reproducing, reinforcing and repairing the ongoing legacies of colonial planning, on the long term health and wellbeing of people racialised as Black.
The How: The application of critical urban health justice
How do we get urban health justice in practice?
One area of interest to me is the how, that is to say how the practical application of urban health justice can achieved.
If someone has an urban health issue they are trying to resolve for example, loud noise coming from building works in their local area. How does the individual get the matter resolved? Like practically, who do you contact?
How do you push back against the legacies of anti-Blackness and intersecting forms of discrimination in social housing? Especially when dealing with matters concerning disrepair, evictions or homelessness?
If there are high areas of air pollution in your local area that are harming you? How do you deal with that?
If there is a regeneration project that threatens to displace local residents, where do they go to get the help and support to fight back against developers and local authorities who are trying to push them out of their local area.
Where do you get the information to deal with these things? And if you can get the information to address these matters, how do you deal with them in practice?
Is it as easy as looking online? Not if you don’t know what to look for. If I know noise pollution is an issue, I can contact my local authority, make several records of the noise complaint on their website, save all the records of the noise and escalate the noise complaint to the local councillors. But what if you don’t have access to the internet, or do not know how to use a computer or digital device.
For more complex issues relating to the legacies of anti-Blackness and intersecting forms of discrimination in social housing. How does a tenant raise a formal complaint or raise an issue when they have to go up against a large social landlord with large amounts of money and resources?
This blog hopes to provide practical examples of answers to some of these questions. Like many things theory is one thing. However, the tactics involved in how to implement effective change is another.