Preface: The preface provides a concise introduction to the book, outlining the aims, structure, and
contents.
Part I: Evolution, Foundations and Key Principles of the Settings-Based Approach
Part One provides the rationale for this approach in the context of investing for health and
tackling 21st-century public health problems. In this section, the key characteristics of the settings
approach are discussed with a specific focus on the evolution, approaches and key concepts,
theoretical underpinnings, principles, governance, and evaluation. This part of the book also
explores the relationship of the settings approach to wider public health and health promotion
theory.
1.1 Evolution of the Settings-Based Approach
Professor Mark Dooris, Dr Michelle Baybutt, and Dr Sami Kokko
This chapter sets out the development and evolution of the settings approach utilizing a
chronological perspective on:
- conceptual development (including models for understanding and operationalising the settings
approach - e.g. Barić 1993, Galea et al 2000, Whitelaw et al 2001, Dooris 2004, 2006, Paton et al
2005, Kokko et al. 2014)
- policy development (including WHO charters and declarations, examples of national
commitments)
- practice/programme development (including international networks and collaborating centres,
IUHPE developments, examples of national and sub-national activities)
Emerging themes and debates are highlighted in this chapter, as a means of introduction for
later chapters.
1.2 Underlying Approaches and Theoretical Grounds
Professor Mark Dooris, Dr Michelle Baybutt, and Dr Sami Kokko
This chapter sets out the underlying approaches and theoretical grounds and presents a
conceptual framework for the healthy settings approach.
The introduction sets out the need for a conceptual framework, programme theory, and guiding
principles by drawing on, for example, Dooris, Poland et al 2007, and exploring and linking theory
around systems thinking and complexity and, ecological and salutogenic orientation. The chapter
provides a critical focus on:
Underpinning values
- equity
- partnership [inter-professional and inter-disciplinary]
- participation, empowerment, and resilience
- sustainable development
Key characteristics - principles, perspectives, and features, to include:
- ecological model
- systems thinking [including open systems and connections to other settings - including
Bronfenbrenner]
Whole-system organisational development and community development focus
1.3 Principles for Settings-Based Practice
Professor Mark Dooris, Dr Michelle Baybutt, and Dr Sami Kokko
This chapter sets out the key principles for settings-based practice and comprises:
Framing practice - key cross-cutting issues, to include:
- assets/salutogenesis and deficits/pathogenesis
- balancing project work with long-term whole system [organisational and community]
development and change including building resilience
- securing top-down commitment and bottom-up engagement
- reflecting public health and core business concerns
- tackling inequalities and working within power structures
- being informed by evidence and prioritising innovation and creativity
Operational practice (e.g., cycle model) - frameworks for the process of engaging and delivering
the setting-based approach
Sustainability, health, and the settings-based appr
Sami Kokko is an Associate Professor in Health Promotion and the Director of Research Center for Health Promotion at the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences in the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. He is a member of the Nordic Health Promotion Research Network and the Global Working Group on Healthy Settings at the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE).
Sami’s main research interests are settings-based health promotion, especially in sports club settings, and physical activity/sports-related topics. He has worked at the University of Jyväskylä for almost twenty years and his publications have contributed not only to science, but also to health and physical activity promotion policy and practice.
Michelle Baybutt is a Reader (Associate Professor) in Sustainable Health and Justice, Co-director of the Healthy and Sustainable Settings Unit (HSSU) and Prisons Strand Lead for the Centre for Criminal Justice Research Partnerships at the University of Central Lancashire in the UK. She is a member of the Global Working Group on Healthy Settings at the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (IUHPE) and is Editor of the International Journal of Health Promotion and Education.
Michelle’s academic expertise linking health promotion practice with research and knowledge exchange forms an academic narrative around prisons as a setting for fostering health and wellbeing; notably, the duality of governance/prison health systems and implementation of sustainable public health interventions. Michelle has extensive health promotion and public health expertise working with people in prisons and those with experience of prison in the wider community. She is committed to improving the health and opportunities of people who are socially excluded or marginalised, and to addressing health inequalities and social injustice.
