Abstract
There are growing urban health issues globally, whereby social and environmental living conditions in cities and towns are contributing to poor health outcomes. The Global South is predicted to house almost all new cities and the majority of all urban growth on the planet by the middle of this century; the impact of these Southern cities on human health will be significant. Empirical evidence and theoretical narratives point to these new urban centres as ‘diseasogenic cities’, which contribute to the proliferation of ill health. In response, there is growing awareness and urgency of the need for ‘Healthy Cities’ that support well-being and improve health outcomes for inhabitants. This chapter critically examines the emergence of diseasogenic cities and implementation of Healthy City strategies in the Global South. Healthy City strategies have been critiqued on a number of fronts, including inequalities, as iterations of developmentalism and colonialism and failing for too many of their population. The chapter concludes by setting out a potential road map for Healthy City strategies in the Global South. The way forward requires radical rethinking of South urbanisms ranging from embracing alternative ontologies and epistemologies, local knowledge and societal/behaviour change, through to practical solutions for delivering context-specific sanitation and healthcare.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Acosta, A. (2011). Sólo Imaginando otros Mundos, se Cambiará Éste: Reflexiones sobre el Buen Vivir. www.plataformabuenvivir.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/AcostaReflexionesBuenVivir.pdf. Accessed 25 Oct 2019.
Alcadipani, R., & Caldas, M. (2012). Americanizing Brazilian Management. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 8(1), 37–55.
Anderson, W. (1995). Excremental Colonialism: Public Health and the Poetics of Pollution. Critical Inquiry, 21(3), 640–669.
Arnold, C. (2008). Necropolis: London and its Dead. London: Simon and Schuster.
Bankoff, G. (2007). Comparing Vulnerabilities: Toward Charting an Historical Trajectory of Disasters. Historical Social Research, 32(3), 103–114.
Barton, H., & Grant, M. (2006). A Health Map for the Local Human Habitat. The Journal for the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 126(6), 252–253.
BBC. (2019, September 26). India: Two Held for Killing Children for ‘Defecating in the Open’. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-49835830. Accessed 2 Oct 2019.
Bodeker, G., Ong, C. K., Grundy, C., Burford, G., & Shein, K. (2005). WHO Global Atlas of Traditional, Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Vol. 1). Kobe: WHO.
Brenner, N., & Schmid, C. (2015). Towards a New Epistemology of the Urban? City, 19(2–3), 151–182.
Bruegman, R. (2008). Urban Sprawl: A Compact History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bryson, B. (2019). The Body: A Guide for Occupants. New York: Doubleday.
Buer, M. C. (2013). Health, Wealth and Population in the Early Days of the Industrial Revolution. London: Routledge.
Callon, M. (1991). Techno-economic Networks and Irreversibility. In J. Law (Ed.), A Sociology of Monsters: Essays on Power, Technology, and Domination (pp. 132–161). London: Routledge.
Caria, S., & Domínguez, R. (2016). Ecuador’s Buen Vivir: A New Ideology for Development. Latin American Perspectives, 43(1), 18–33.
Chaput, J.-P., Klingenberg, L., Astrup, A., & Sjödin, A. M. (2011). Modern Sedentary Activities Promote Overconsumption of Food in our Current Obesogenic Environment. Obesity Reviews, 12(5), e12–e20.
Christopher, A. J. (1983). From Flint to Soweto: Reflections on the Colonial Origins of the Apartheid City. Area, 15(2), 145–149.
Cohen, B. (2006). Urbanization in Developing Countries: Current Trends, Future Projections, and Key Challenges for Sustainability. Technology in Society, 28(1–2), 63–80.
Curtis, B. (2018). Education as Poverty Reduction. In B. Curtis & S. Cosgrove (Eds.), Understanding Global Poverty Causes, Capabilities and Human Development (pp. 201–221). London: Routledge.
Davis, M. (2004). The Urbanization of Empire: Megacities and the Laws of Chaos. Social Text, 22(4), 9–15.
Davis, M. (2007). Planet of Slums. London: Verso.
Dawson, A., & Hayes Edwards, B. (2004). Introduction: Global cities of the South. In A. Dawson & B. Hayes Edwards (Eds.), Social Text Collective (pp. 1–7). Durham: Duke University Press.
de Sousa Santos, B. (2014). Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide. Oxon: Routledge.
Domingues, J. M. (2012). Development and Dependency, Developmentalism and Alternatives. In R. Boschi & C. Henrique (Eds.), Development and Semi-periphery: Post-neoliberal Trajectories in South America and Central Eastern Europe (pp. 83–101). London: Anthem Press.
Douglas, M. (2003). Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge.
Dupont, V., Jordhus-Lier, D., Sutherland, C., & Braathen, E. (Eds.). (2015). The Politics of Slums in the Global South: Urban Informality in Brazil, India, South Africa and Peru. London: Routledge.
Easterlin, R. A. (1995). Industrial Revolution and Mortality Revolution: Two of a Kind? Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 5(4), 393–408.
Ehrenberg, J. P., & Ault, S. K. (2005). Neglected Diseases of Neglected Populations: Thinking to Reshape the Determinants of Health in Latin America and the Caribbean. BMC Public Health, 5(1), 119.
Escobar, A. (1995). Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Escobar, A. (2018). Designs for the Pluriverse. Durham: Duke University Press.
Farley, J. (2003). Bilharzia: A History of Imperial Tropical Medicine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ferguson, J. (2006). Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order. Durham: Duke University Press.
Ferguson, K. (2007). William James: Politics in the Pluriverse. New York: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Fernando, S., & Moodley, R. (Eds.). (2018). Global Psychologies: Mental Health and the Global South. London: Springer.
Fitzgerald, A. J. (2010). A Social History of the Slaughterhouse: From Inception to Contemporary Implications. Human Ecology Review, 17(1), 58–69.
Frost, L. (1997). Coping in their Own Way: Asian Cities and the Problem of Fires. Urban History, 24(1), 5–16.
Galea, S., Ettman, C. K., & Vlahov, D. (Eds.). (2019). Urban Health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Gilbert, A. (2007). The Return of Slum: Does Language Matter? International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 31(4), 697–713.
Grant, M., Brown, C., Waleska, T. C., Capon, A., Corburn, J., Coutts, C., & Crespo, C. J. (2017). Cities and Health: An Evolving Global Conversation. Cities and Health, 1(1), 1–9.
Grosfoguel, R. (2000). Developmentalism, Modernity, and Dependency Theory in Latin America. Nepantla: Views from South, 1(2), 347–374.
Gudynas, E. (2011). Buen Vivir: Today’s Tomorrow. Development, 54(4), 441–447.
Gugler, J. (2004). World Cities beyond the West: Globalization, Development and Inequality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hotez, P. J. (2017). Ten Failings in Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Control. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 11(12), e0005896. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005896.
Ichikawa, H. (1994). The Evolutionary Process of Urban Form in Edo/Tokyo to 1900. Town Planning Review, 65(2), 179.
Jewitt, S. (2011). Geographies of Shit: Spatial and Temporal Variations in Attitudes towards Human Waste. Progress in Human Geography, 35(5), 608–626.
Kaklauskas, A., Zavadskas, E. K., Radzeviciene, A., Ubarte, I., Podviezko, A., Podvezko, V., Kuzminske, A., Banaitis, A., Binkyte, A., & Bucinskas, V. (2018). Quality of City Life Multiple Criteria Analysis. Cities, 1(72), 82–93.
Kanai, J. M. (2014). On the Peripheries of Planetary Urbanization: Globalizing Manaus and its Expanding Impact. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 32(6), 1071–1087.
Kanna, A. (2012). Urban Praxis and the Arab Spring. City, 16(3), 360–368.
Latouche, S. (1996). The Westernization of the World: Significance, Scope and Limits of the Drive towards Global Uniformity. Cambridge: Polity.
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lu, C., Black, M. M., & Richter, L. M. (2016). Risk of Poor Development in Young Children in Low-income and Middle-income Countries: An Estimation and Analysis at the Global, Regional, and Country Level. The Lancet Global Health, 4(12), e916–e922.
Marmot, M. (2015). The Health Gap: The Challenge of an Unequal World. London: Bloomsbury.
Marteau, T. M., Ogilvie, D., Roland, M., Suhrcke, M., & Kelly, M. P. (2011). Judging Nudging: Can Nudging Improve Population Health? BMJ, 342, d228.
McFarlane, C. (2008). Urban Shadows: Materiality, the ‘Southern City’ and Urban Theory. Geography Compass, 2(2), 340–358.
Memmi, A. (1992). The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston: Beacon Press.
Meyer, R., Patel, A. M., Rattana, S. K., Quock, T. P., & Mody, S. H. (2014). Prescription Opioid Abuse: A Literature Review of the Clinical and Economic Burden in the United States. Population Health Management, 17(6), 372–387.
Micozzi, M. S. (2018). Fundamentals of Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Medicine. St. Louis: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Mills, C. (2014). Decolonizing Global Mental Health: The Psychiatrization of the Majority World. London: Routledge.
Nieuwenhuijsen, M., & Khreis, H. (Eds.). (2018). Integrating Human Health into Urban and Transport Planning: A Framework. London: Springer.
Njoh, A. J. (2008). Colonial Philosophies, Urban Space, and Racial Segregation in British and French Colonial Africa. Journal of Black Studies, 38(4), 579–599.
Otter, C. (2005). Civilizing Slaughter: The Development of the British Public Abattoir, 1850–1910. Food and History, 3(2), 29–51.
Owusu, G., Agyei-Mensah, S., & Lund, R. (2008). Slums of Hope and Slums of Despair: Mobility and Livelihoods in Nima, Accra. Norwegian Journal of Geography, 62(3), 180–190.
Papanek, V. (2009). Design for the Real World: Human Ecology and Social Change. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publisher.
Partridge, C. (2005). The Re-enchantment of the West, Vol 1: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization Popular Culture and Occulture. London: T&T Clark.
Partridge, C. (2006). The Re-enchantment of the West, Vol 2: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization Popular Culture and Occulture. London: T&T Clark.
Poestges, H. (2011). Leprosy, the Key to Another Kingdom. Leprosy Review, 82(2), 155.
Pruss, A., Kay, D., Fewtrell, L., & Bartram, J. (2002). Estimating the Burden of Disease from Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene at a Global Level. Environmental Health Perspectives, 110(5), 537–542.
Quijano, A. (2005). Of Don Quixote and Windmills in Latin America. Estudos Avançados, 19(55), 9–31.
Quijano, A. (2008). Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Social Classification. In M. Morãna, E. Dussel, & C. Jáuregui (Eds.), Coloniality at Large: Latin America and Postcolonial Debate (pp. 540–567). Durham: Duke University Press.
Reeves, A., Gourtsoyannis, Y., Basu, S., McCoy, D., McKee, M., & Stuckler, D. (2015). Financing Universal Health Coverage - Effects of Alternative Tax Structures on Public Health Systems: Cross-national Modelling in 89 Low-income and Middle-income Countries. The Lancet, 386(9990), 274–280.
Rice, L. (2018). Nonhumans in Participatory Design. CoDesign, 14(3), 238–257.
Rice, L. (2019a). The Nature and Extent of Healthy Architecture: The Current State of Progress. Archnet-IJAR: International Journal of Architectural Research, 13(2), 244–259.
Rice, L. (2019b). A Health Map for Architecture: The Determinants of Health and Wellbeing in Buildings. In M. Jones, L. Rice, & F. Meraz (Eds.), Designing for Health & Wellbeing: Home, City, Society (pp. 155–184). Delaware: Vernon Books.
Roy, A. (2005). Urban Informality: Toward an Epistemology of Planning. Journal American Planning Association, 71(2), 147–158.
Sachs, W. (Ed.). (1997). Development Dictionary: A Guide to Knowledge as Power. New York: St Martin’s Press.
Schuurman, F. J. (2000). Paradigms Lost, Paradigms Regained? Development Studies in the Twenty-first Century. Third World Quarterly, 21(1), 7–20.
Smith, V. S. (2008). Clean: A History of Personal Hygiene and Purity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stephens, C. (1996). Healthy Cities or Unhealthy Islands? The Health and Social Implications of Urban Inequality. Environment and Urbanization, 8(2), 9–30.
Sunstein, C., & Thaler, R. (2008). Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Swyngedouw, E. (2004). Social Power and the Urbanization of Water: Flows of Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Szreter, S. (2004). Industrialization and Health. British Medical Bulletin, 69(1), 75–86.
The Gates Foundation. (2019). Water, Sanitation & Hygiene: Strategy Overview. www.gatesfoundation.org/what-we-do/global-growth-and-opportunity/water-sanitation-and-hygiene. Accessed 30 July 2019.
The Prince of Wales. (2009, February 6). Charles Declares Mumbai Shanty Town Model for the World. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2009/feb/06/prince-charles-slum-comments. Accessed 26 June 2018.
Thomas, A. J. (2015). Cholera: The Victorian Plague. Barnsley: Pen and Sword.
Thomson, B. (2011). Pachakuti: Indigenous Perspectives, Buen Vivir, Sumaq Kawsay and Degrowth. Development, 54(4), 448–454.
Thornicroft, G., & Maingay, S. (2002). The Global Response to Mental Illness: An Enormous Health Burden is Increasingly Being Recognised. BMJ, 325, 608–609.
UN. (2019). Cities and Pollution Contribute to Climate Change. www.un.org/en/climatechange/cities-pollution.shtml. Accessed 16 Sept 2019.
UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision. New York: United Nations.
UNICEF-WHO. (2009). Diarrhoea: Why Children Are Still Dying and What Can be Done. Geneva: UNICEF.
Villalba, U. (2013). Buen Vivir vs Development: A Paradigm shift in the Andes? Third World Quarterly, 34(8), 1427–1442.
Vitruvious. (1999). Ten Books on Architecture – Book 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Vlahov, D., Galea, S., & Freudenberg, N. (2005). The Urban Health ‘Advantage’. Journal of Urban Health, 82(1), 1–4.
Walker, S. P., Wachs, T. D., Gardner, J. M., Lozoff, B., Wasserman, G. A., Pollitt, E., & Carter, J. A. (2007). Child Development: Risk Factors for Adverse Outcomes in Developing Countries. The Lancet, 369(9556), 145–157.
Wallerstein, I. (2005). After Developmentalism and Globalization, What? Social Forces, 83(3), 1263–1278.
WHO. (1995). Building a Healthy City: A Practitioners Guide. A Step-by-Step Approach to Implementing Healthy City Projects in Low-income Countries. Geneva: WHO.
WHO. (2012). Water Sanitation Hygiene: Fast Facts. www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/monitoring/jmp2012/fast_facts/en. Accessed 11 Dec 2019.
WHO. (2015). Health in 2015: From MDGs, Millennium Development Goals to SGDs, Sustainable Development Goals. Geneva: WHO.
WHO. (2017). Integrating Neglected Tropical Diseases into Global Health and Development: Fourth WHO Report on Neglected Tropical Diseases. Geneva: WHO.
WHO. (2019). Types of Healthy Settings: Healthy Cities. www.who.int/healthy_settinGlobalSouth/types/cities/en. Accessed 11 Dec 2019.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rice, L. (2021). Healthy Cities, Diseasogenic Cities and the Global South. In: Ioris, A.A.R. (eds) Environment and Development . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55416-3_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55416-3_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-55415-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-55416-3
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)