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Community representatives: representing the "community"?

R Jewkes¹, A Murcott

¹Health Promotion Sciences Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.

Social Science & Medicine (1982)

|April 16, 1998

Summary

Understanding "community" in health promotion is complex. This study reveals how operational definitions, particularly viewing community as the voluntary sector, can limit democratic health decision-making and participation outcomes.

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Area of Science:

Public Health
Sociology
Health Policy

Background:

International health strategies often assume a clear meaning of "community."
However, "community" is widely debated in social and health sciences.
This ambiguity complicates efforts to implement community participation in health.

Purpose of the Study:

To empirically examine how "community" is operationalized in health promotion.
To investigate the implications of these operationalizations for community participation in health decision-making.
To analyze how "community representative" roles shape interpretations of community.

Main Methods:

Empirical study of health promotion initiatives in the United Kingdom.
Focus on the selection of members for "Health for All" steering groups within Healthy Cities projects.

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Analysis of how "community" is defined and applied in practice.

Main Results:

The operational demands of "community representative" roles favor specific interpretations of "community."
The interpretation of "community" as part of the "voluntary sector" emerged as significant.
This interpretation may inadvertently restrict the scope of community participation.

Conclusions:

Operationalizing "community" in health promotion involves making choices with significant consequences.
Defining "community" through the lens of the voluntary sector may undermine the goal of extending democracy in health.
Further research is needed to explore inclusive operationalizations of community for health initiatives.