Incorporating practitioner knowledge to test and improve a new conceptual framework for healthy urban design and planning

Abstract

There are increasing arguments for bridging diverse knowledges and co-producing new knowledge between researchers, professional communities and citizens to create health-promoting built environments. The new THRIVES Framework (Towards Healthy uRbanism: InclusiVe, Equitable, Sustainable) echoes the call that healthy urbanism processes should be participatory and this principle informed the development of the Framework itself, which involved several stages of informal and formal testing with stakeholders, through a process of action research and 'extended peer review'. Formal feedback about the design of the preliminary Framework and its implementation in built environment practice was gathered through a participatory workshop with 26 built environment and public health professionals in January 2020. Participants were encouraged to share their knowledge, ask questions, critique and provide recommendations. Overall, participants were supportive of the conceptual messages of the THRIVES Framework and more critical of the visual design of the preliminary version. They also questioned whether further resources would be required to implement the Framework. This research created a forum for stakeholders, who may typically be outside the research process, to shape the development of a conceptual framework for healthy urbanism. Further research and collaboration will create resources to bridge the gap between this new conceptualisation and practice.

Understanding the Role of Standards in the Negotiation of a Healthy Built Environment

“…Lack of contextual relevance also risks undermining the sense of identification and delivery of long-term sustainability [ 50 ]. Which actors are involved in negotiation processes can change at different project stages, affecting how, why, and when different intentions are identified and internalised, and potentially affecting who else is engaged in the process [ 29 , 69 , 74 ]. Actors can perceive standards (and their purpose) differently at various stages, and therefore it is unsurprising that there is a plurality of responses and narratives around standards.…”

“…Actors can perceive standards (and their purpose) differently at various stages, and therefore it is unsurprising that there is a plurality of responses and narratives around standards. A central concern arises therefore, regarding who is (and is not) engaged in a project, how, and when (linked to questions of actor capability and agency to access and influence negotiations) [ 29 , 69 ], as this will give clear pointers to why different standards and intentions are prioritised or deprioritised at any one time. For example, a failure to adequately engage occupants early in considering both standard selection and implementation is more likely to face obstacles at POE stages when the perspectives of users are likely to be more dominant.…”

“…Our review and comparison activities focused on standards that were most frequently referred to by interview participants, listed in Table 1 . The substantive scope of the standards was contrasted against the Towards Healthy Urbanism: Inclusive, Equitable, Sustainable (THRIVES) framework which collates a range of health and wellbeing intentions that can be promoted through BE projects [ 68 , 69 ]. The THRIVES framework offers a holistic framework through which to examine the scope of standards and the health and wellbeing intentions they seek to address.…”

Towards healthy urbanism: inclusive, equitable and sustainable (THRIVES) – an urban design and planning framework from theory to praxis

“…The process of conducting this research is underpinned by action research and transdisciplinary approaches, as described in Pineo et al (2020a). The need for the THRIVES Framework emerged from collaboration between the author and Guy's and St Thomas' Charity (GSTC), an urban health charity who want to improve health and wellbeing through their portfolio of land and property.…”

“…The emergence of specific built environment and equity frameworks Freeman 2011, Gelormino et al 2015) demonstrates progress, yet further underscores this sense of fragmentation across the diverse and interconnected factors that affect health in cities. This article and an accompanying paper (Pineo et al 2020a) report on an initiative that aims to fulfil the following objectives: 1) establish how existing healthy urban design and planning frameworks communicate concepts related to scales of health impact and sustainability, equity and inclusion, and their interconnections and 2) develop and test a new framework (the THRIVES Framework) with a range of built environment and health practitioners. The focus of this article is to describe objective one and to introduce the conceptual foundation for the Framework.…”