Project overview

This project aims to improve our understanding of urban public health provision following a crisis.

A comparative, cross-national study of urban crisis is being carried out in three cities, - Athens, Manchester, and Santiago - to examine local responses to managing intersecting health, social, and economic crises.  

Part of this research assesses how cities engage in innovation and experimentation under crisis to help improve outcomes for health and social well-being among low-income communities across the three cities.

A key aspect of this work examines how cities and stakeholders produce, evaluate, and exchange ideas around best practice models in urban service innovation within the health sector across cities in the global north and global south. 

The project is guided by the following questions: 

  1. What form of urban crisis manifests in each city? What are the processes of addressing these crises from a national and municipal perspective?
  2. How have the practices, politics, and policies surrounding urban crisis and their ongoing effects shaped spaces of urban public health and care in each city?
  3. What forms of experimentation have emerged in the immediate wake of urban crisis and what are the ongoing effects of this experimentation on spaces of health and social care?
  4. How has state provision of urban public health and care changed over time in each city? What have been the main political debates in the cities affected?
  5. What, if any, alternative forms of service provision have emerged to manage the effects of crisis and crisis policies on urban health services?