'Urban Health in the Ruhr Area - A Feasibility Study' is a transdisciplinary research project in the field of urban health with the socially diverse Ruhr Area as the central reference and study area. With this, MUHR, together with a multitude of actors from science, practice and society, analyzes the structures and offers of the Ruhr area, the feasibility of new approaches and offers for healthier living environments.

Duration: 15.10.2021 - 15.04.2023

Goal

Within the framework of the project, a feasibility study will be prepared that examines and demonstrates the possibilities and preconditions for analyzing the causes of health-related inequality of opportunity in the cities and neighborhoods of the Ruhr region in a transdisciplinary process and for developing and implementing strategies to reduce social inequality in health. Central to the content is the integration of the Sustainable Development Goals pursued worldwide and the guiding principle of environmental justice as a counterpoint to social inequality. The goal of the intended transdisciplinary process, in which science, practice and society are involved, is the joint production of knowledge and the development of socially robust orientations, which are oriented towards the development of healthy living environments. On the basis of such a more comprehensive understanding of social inequality in health, direct impulses can be given for the structural change of the Ruhr region.

Approach

Close cooperation with actors in the Ruhr region in the sense of transformative research is a central component of the application-oriented research approach. Scientists from the fields of health, care, spatial and engineering sciences, cultural, social and political sciences, economics and a large number of other actors from practice, civil society and diverse communities contribute their expertise and perspective and work together on analyses and solutions to relevant topics of urban health in the Ruhr area. The focus is on examining the preconditions for feasibility of working on the following topics:

Further development of methods of transformative research: Important research needs are seen here in the integration of diverse communities in the joint learning process and the diffusion of experimental research methods, Reduction of social inequalities in health between subspaces and communities that have different resources, specific expression of health determinants leading to situations of social and environmental multiple burdens of vulnerable populations, the resulting need for regionalized health care (urban care), and the question of how improvements in urban health can be achieved in an administrative and actor structure characterized by diversity (multi-level governance).

The following work packages will be addressed:

   WP1: Roundtable "Urban Health as a transdisciplinary process in the Ruhr Area".
   WP2: Synopsis Urban Health international
   WP3: Urban Health RUHR - international symposium
   WP4: Urban Health - practical workshops foundation and transfer
   WP5: Exploration and development of participation methods for diverse communities
   WP6: Urban Health digiSpace
   WP7: Lecture series "Urban Health in and for the Ruhr Area
   WP8: Project management - network building

Joined Partner

• Hochschule für Gesundheit, Bochum (Project Management)
• Evangelische Hochschule Rheinland-Westfalen-Lippe
• Institut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung
• Kompetenzfeld Metropolenforschung
• Landeszentrum Gesundheit Nordrhein-Westfalen
• MedEcon Ruhr
• Ruhr Universität Bochum
• Technische Universität Dortmund
• Universität Duisburg Essen

Funding

The feasibility study is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia