Meaningful Engagement An Approach to Healthier Urban Development and Planning

Although there is substantial evidence of the connection between aspects of the urban environment and poor health, there are challenges in translating that knowledge into change in urban development practice. Applicable knowledge, generated by academics, policymakers, and practitioners, is failing to translate into long-term sustainable reduction in preventable disease. It is accepted that there is a wide range of political, economic, and organizational challenges that manifest as real-world difficulties for translating knowledge into practice, including limited resources, competing interests, and complex and entrenched processes. However, embedded research is being used to help understand and navigate some of these difficulties by attempting to facilitate better connections between research and practice. Here, we consider the opportunities and limitations of this approach by reflecting on experiences of researchers in residence in two urban areas in England – Greater Manchester and Bristol. We examine the challenges of using health-related knowledge to enhance the uptake of evidence in these dynamic and complex settings. We explore how drawing on academic research and aligning this with the meaningful engagement of practitioners in an action-learning approach to preventable disease reduction, can be assisted by co-developing actions. Building on our case study experience we present a hybrid-collaborative model designed to illustrate the collaborative, iterative and context specific dimensions of action orientated research. We suggest that this approach optimizes the opportunity to use research and evidence to support more sustainable change required to improve urban health.