This website is a tool
It has been designed as a self-led learning tool for people looking to learn more about systemic pathways that create health injustices and how to act on them.
Who’s this site designed for?
Grassroots Campaigners & Organisers
The body of work is produced in a way to help communicate the science and health outcomes relating to specific systemic injustices.
Advocates & Impact Organisations
We’ve aimed to organise all work so that you can see the interlinked elements between different systems and their health injustice outcomes.
Policy and large scale changemakers
The body of work is produced in a way to you apply and communicate policy led changes on large scale systemic issues that work to resolve the root causes of health injustice in the communities you serve.
“So they got to work. The first step was to develop epistemic authority. To achieve this, they built a new room, one that put Flint residents and activists in active collaboration with scientists who had the laboratories to run the relevant tests and prove MDEQ’s report was fraudulent. Flint residents' outcry about the poisonings helped recruit scientists to their cause. The new roommates ran a citizen science campaign, further rating the alarm about the water quality and distributing sample kits to neighbors so that they could submit their water for testing. The alliance of residents and scientists won. And the poisoning of the children of Flint emerged as a national scandal.”
- Olúfémi O Táíwò, Elite Capture (2022)
How the work is organised
(with examples related to the topic of Air Pollution)
1. DEFINITIONS
We have built a robust lexicon of definitions helping people get to know the basic principles of a health phenomena or research practice.
Example
Defining Air Pollution
A short form definition to gather basic understandings on the link between air pollution and health.
2. EPISTEMOLOGICAL FRAMINGS
With injustice there is always a background and a reason as to why a structural inequity exists. For our key research programmes and pathways we always go to the epistemological roots of an issue, such as health narratives of obesity or policies that underpin pollution, and explore their illegitimate foundations.
Example
Epistemological Roots of Right to Pollute Policies
A project bringing together people from climate justice, healthcare, criminal justice, and more, for a 90-minute Imagination Lab to explore this question from their respected field of knowledge.
3. SYSTEMS
Once knowing the roots of something we explore how it plays out through various systems, such as healthcare and land use. This helps demonstrate how historical foundations create institutionalised inequities today.
Example
Urban Sacrifice Zones
A data led study looking regions in the UK of the intersection between areas of deprivation (under investment) and high pollution using governmental data.
4. HEALTH OUTCOMES
We produce a diversity of work using different research methods, such as data studies and surveys, to demonstrate how the histories and systems create poor health outcomes.
Example
Air Pollution & Regeneration in Southall, London
We supported the grassroots community group Clean Air for Southall & Hayes in helping them advocate for better health protection through demonstrating the need for health analysis to factor in susceptibility,
5. HEALING PATHWAYS
We work alongside people with lived experience of particular phenomenas to develop Community-led health justice programmes and living knowledges rooted in science for those living in oppressive urban environments.
Example
Community Health Impact Assessment Toolkit
We co-developed a toolkit for community groups to deliver a health impact assessment reflecting the realities of their localities and lived experiences and perspectives on health. This practical tool is aimed at supporting groups advocate for better health by showing ‘how things could be done’ if authorities listened.