Illuminating Policy for Health

“Harris has extensive experience in public health policy research and uses it to great effect ... His aim is to use what we know about public health problems, and policy processes, to inform sophisticated policy analysis. This approach requires analysts to situate their potential policy solutions in the context of a political audience more or less receptive to their ideas, and a complex policymaking environment out of their full understanding and control”

—Paul Cairney, Professor of Politics and Public Policy, University of Stirling, UK

“Turning the floodlights on healthy public policy, Harris adopts a Critical Realist lens to highlight the importance of theory, framing, policy and governance in metropolitan planning, urban transport infrastructure, impact assessment, coal mining and climate change.  Supported by raw and insightful observations about his personal navigation of research and writing, Illuminating Policy for Health is a must-read for anybody interested in the nexus of urban and regional planning and health policy”

—Phil McManus, Professor of Urban and Environmental Geography, The University of Sydney, Australia

“This book applies a critical lens to understanding policy from a public health perspective. Using urban governance as a case study (a policy area in much need of greater public health attention given the current climate emergency), Harris demonstrates the fundamentally political nature of policymaking. It should be of interest to anyone interested in better understanding the ways politics and power shape policy outcomes.”

—Katherine Smith, Professor of Health Policy, University of Strathclyde, UK

This book takes a public health lens to how policies are made and shaped. Focussing on policymaking for cities and regions, the book’s Critical Realist scaffold draws in knowledge from theories about policy institutions, processes, governance, and power. Combining personal insight with empirical rigour and theoretical depth, the book navigates how to conduct public health focussed policy analysis.

Patrick Harris is Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation at UNSW, Sydney, Australia.