Conceptions of space and community in British health policy

Several recent United Kingdom health policy initiatives include ideas implicitly or even explicitly involving geographical space as a central theoretical construct. Neighbourhood nursing is perhaps the best known recent example. These initiatives are not without common features, and the paper commences with a typology of the roles which geographical space plays in health policy. A second section gives specific consideration to neighbourhood nursing. Thirdly the paper outlines the social theoretic debates surrounding geographic inputs to health policy: ideas such as community and locality. It is suggested that spatial conceptions in health policy reflect a complex amalgam of sociological assumptions which might fruitfully be considered in the light of Giddens' concept of locale.