Complexity: a potential paradigm for a health promotion discipline

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Complex Systems Science
• Health Promotion Theory

Background:

• Health promotion lacks a unified theoretical, epistemological, and methodological foundation.
• Existing approaches often rely on the narrow biomedical model.
• The complexity paradigm offers a potential disciplinary matrix for health promotion.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish the relevance of the complexity paradigm for developing a health promotion discipline.
• To demonstrate how complexity aligns with health promotion's implicit values and principles.
• To present developmental evaluation as a complexity-informed practice for health promotion.

Main Methods:

• Conceptual analysis of health promotion principles and complexity theory.
• Examination of ontological and epistemological congruence between complexity and health promotion.
• Illustration of complexity-informed practice through developmental evaluation.

Main Results:

• Complexity theory's emphasis on holism, context, and transdisciplinarity aligns with health promotion's ecological and interdisciplinary tendencies.
• Key principles of complexity, such as reflexivity and transcendence of determinism, resonate with health promotion values like social justice and empowerment.
• Developmental evaluation serves as a practical example of applying complexity to health promotion initiatives.

Conclusions:

• The complexity paradigm provides a suitable framework for health promotion, addressing its need for theoretical and methodological formalization.
• Adopting complexity can enhance health promotion's capacity to address social justice, participation, and positive health.
• Integrating complexity offers a formal structure that aligns with the purposes and concerns of health promotion.