Strengthening ties and opportunities in health and planning education contextualized in urban environments: an innovative approach for capacity building in urban health

Coinciding with the intense urbanization of the various peoples, nations, societies and ethnic groups and overwhelmed by globalization, demographic and epidemiological transition, the territories become increasingly diverse... [ view full abstract ]

Coinciding with the intense urbanization of the various peoples, nations, societies and ethnic groups and overwhelmed by globalization, demographic and epidemiological transition, the territories become increasingly diverse and hybrid, combining managements and peculiar identities in the possibilities of living and co-living within the urban context. Society has demanded the need for social and urban improvements and health of citizens, making urgent the dialogue between health and urban policies.

Aiming to evaluate urban and environmental context in the health and to understand the process of production of urban space, focusing on the unequal power relationship, a group of professors/researchers from epidemiology, urban planning, urban geography, architecture and information technology (IT) fields decided to work in an interdisciplinary way, creating a new course for master or doctoral students. The course is centered on the discussion of several themes: urban health (UH) determinants, relevant issues in the relationship between urban living and the health/disease process, social determinants of health and, multi-level and system approach thinking on UH. Traditional methods are used such as lectures, comprehension reading, discussion papers together with innovative methods based on IT using web maps and collaborative platforms, universal design, environmental assessment tools and evaluation of public spaces based on the systematic social observation approach. The course comprises a fieldwork case study in a complex of slum area within the city where recently has undergone an extensive urban regeneration process. The resettlement of some of them in housing estates within the area and the controversial indenization of families are some of the outcomes of the project. IT tools are being piloted, as the practical exercise assay.

As a cutting-edge pedagogy involving multi and interdisciplinary approaches using traditional and technology-assisted methods as teaching experience we expect to create the means for preparing students for today's and tomorrow's urban health challenges.