Advancing Health Rights and Tackling Inequalities: Interrogating Community Development and Participatory Praxis

by Anuj Kapilashrami, Neil Quinn, Abhijit Das

Overview

In a world facing multiple intersecting crises, the push for healthier, more resilient societies has never been more urgent. This timely book reveals how empowered and organised communities can lead this change. It offers policy makers, academics, and activists research-driven insights, decolonial perspectives and real-world examples of organising and collective actions from across the global North and South.

By centring on the power of community development, participation, and social movements, the book delivers actionable frameworks to tackle inequality and advance the right to health, making it an essential resource for anyone committed to health justice and for building equitable and sustainable health systems worldwide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781447361398
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	06/24/2025
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Anuj Kapilashrami is Professor of Global Health Policy and Equity and Director of the Centre for Global Health and Intersectional Equity Research at the University of Essex.

Neil Quinn is Professor of Social Work and Health Equity and Founding Director of the Centre for Health Policy at the University of Strathclyde.

Abhijit Das is Managing Trustee of the Centre for Health and Social Justice in New Delhi and Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington.

Table of Contents

PART I: Participation, power, and public health: historical influences and modern imperatives

1. Introduction

2. History of community participation in public health: from primary care movement to UHC

3. ‘Communities’, power, and participation: unpacking concepts from praxis

PART II: Pathways to health justice: community organising, collective action and accountability

4. Engaging communities at the margins to tackle health inequalities

5. Building sustainable social movements for the right to health

6. Addressing political, economic, and commercial forces shaping health

7. Strengthening accountability for the right to health

PART III: Tools for transformation and organising for change: arts, media, and participatory action research

8. Community activism in action

9. The role of arts, social media, and participatory action research in advancing health rights

10. Conclusion: Community organising and collective action as countervailing power for healthy and just societies

Editorial Reviews

This book is a rich resource of analysis and examples on inequality, participation/power and rights in health. The authors' research and experience in India and other regions show the widespread impacts in marginalised populations north and south of a neo-colonial, neoliberal political economy. Their sharp unbundling of disempowering narratives, and examples and critical reflections shared on local, national, and transnational level responses make it relevant for a range of academic, practitioners and activists linking knowledge to change.” Rene Loewenson, Training and Research Support Centre, Zimbabwe

“Social and health inequalities worldwide have never been so great. These crises have many economic and policy causes, yet perhaps the greatest systemic problem is the lack of public engagement in co-creating solutions. This fine and wise book shows how communities can participate and make changes that improve lives. A superb insight into how to create better futures.” Jules Pretty, University of Essex

“I strongly recommend this rich, accessible, interdisciplinary, challenging book. It comes from the head and heart. Theory and praxis. Professional and personal. Intersectionality and decoloniality are woven throughout to offer a distinctive gaze to several mainstream discourses on participation and health rights. It’s replete with instructive case studies. The authors focus on health, but they speak to anyone committed to a more just world.” Paul Hunt, first UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health & Chief Commissioner for New Zealand Human Rights Commission

"This comprehensive overview of community development and collective action for health justice creatively bridges theory and practice. The focus on countervailing power from below offers a timely counterpoint - both to top-down approaches to community consultation and to the conventional framing of social determinants of health in terms of individual characteristics." Jonathan Fox, American University

“Understanding who has power, how it is used, and how power relationships can be changed, has never been more important for those of us seeking to reduce health inequalities. This book provides an essential guide to that urgent task." Gerry McCartney, University of Glasgow

"This engaging new book shines a spotlight on the power of grassroots, social movements for tackling inequalities, combining a fierce moral clarity with practical, road-tested strategies for achieving policy change. Drawing on decades of frontline organising, from Glasgow to New Delhi, the authors combine community-development theory, decolonial critique and hard-won activist wisdom into a compelling manifesto for navigating our poly-crisis age. Their intersectional lens, vivid case studies and unapologetic focus on power make this book an essential companion for anyone working to turn human-rights rhetoric into lived reality." Katherine Smith, University of Strathclyde

"Advancing Health Rights and Tackling Inequalities is a deeply engaging entwining of experience with theory that dispenses with both the romanticism and cynicism that sometimes marks the discussion of participatory approaches to health rights and inequities. Its strength is the way it builds knowledge from diverse experiences in marginal spaces to offers a conceptually updated contemporary account enriched by captivating illustrations. This encounter with bottom-up resistance and engagement with health rights energizes as much as it challenges." Rakhal Gaitonde, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, India

From the Publisher