Vaughan, Laura; McEachan, Rosemary; (2024) The Spatial Syntax of Health: On the dynamic interplay between human bodies and human environments. In: Charalambous, Nadia and Psathiti, Chrystala and Geddes, Ilaria, (eds.) Space Syntax Symposium 14. (pp. pp. 37-54). tab edizioni: Rome, Italy.

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Abstract

The need to consider the organic and biological contingencies of place when undertaking health research was central to this keynote session. Laura Vaughan’s talk in the first half of the keynote covered two key aspects of urbanism in space syntax theory: first, that how where you live shapes your social, economic and health outcomes; and second, how the position of that location within the wider city is of equal importance, since being spatially segregated from life beyond your neighbourhood can have just as profound an effect on life outcomes as the circumstances of the street where you live. Professor Vaughan’s keynote covered the history of mapping health from the early 19th century till today, to show how a specifically socio-spatial approach can enrich research into patterns of disease. Bringing a space syntax lens to health studies, by taking account of the configuration of the built environment, we can start to find ways to make significant contributions to make environments healthier. Mapping of non-communicable disease also reveals the important role of the environment – which can either enable healthy lifestyles or have a negative impact on it. The talk from Rosie McEachan highlighted the revolutionary approach of the Born in Bradford cohort study, which follows the lives of over 60,000 residents living in a multi-cultural, deprived city in the North of England to find out why some families stay healthy and why others fall ill. Using a City Collaboratory approach, the project works with the local government authority, health, education and voluntary sector providers across Bradford district to develop, implement and evaluate programmes to improve population health. With a focus on environmental determinants of health she described how the evidence collected from their ‘people-powered’ research programme led to policy change in the city. The two speakers then jointly outlined the benefits and challenges of working across disciplines. Starting with the strengths and mutual learning to be found in interdisciplinary research, the presentation will outline the critical differences, such as in concepts, in timing, as well as epistemological differences. Issues of how each discipline meets the demands of producing evidence of what works, when research timescales differ from the policy-maker’s requirement to address an urgent societal/political/economic challenge are one of the matters that was discussed. Lastly, how academic researchers can make what they do useful, developing relationships with decision-makers for example, closed the session.

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