Conduct city research for publication in the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health
Are you a student, academic or practitioner with an interest in undertaking a research/audit project to assess your city's approach to planning and design for mental health? We are keen to publish city reviews in the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health.
A UD/MH city case study examines how a particular city applies the key principles of urban design for good population mental health, and identifies opportunities for this city and lessons for other cities.
Aims
Outline:
A UD/MH city case study examines how a particular city applies the key principles of urban design for good population mental health, and identifies opportunities for this city and lessons for other cities.
Aims
- Produce a paper of 3000-8000 words that summarises the rationale, principles, and prioritisation of urban design to support and promote mental health and wellbeing in a city of your choice.
- Identify any particular approaches the city takes (or does not take) to using urban design to promote mental health, and extrapolate opportunities for your city and any key lessons for other cities.
Outline:
- City overview: Briefly describe your city's historical and current urban planning and design context. This may involve a literature review, consulting other sources, etc.
- Mental health overview: Briefly summarise any available mental health statistics for your city, and what any key challenges for mental health might be (for example unemployment, IV drug use, aging population, etc).
- Prioritisation: Discuss the extent to which your city takes mental health into account in urban design (architects, planners and policymakers.) This includes examining relevant city policies for mental health considerations, and interviewing architects, planners, and others about whether they consider it a priority. It is also worth getting a feel for whether health more generally is considered a priority.
- Principles: Describe the key rationale and design principles for how the architects, planners and policymakers in your city believe mental health can be best integrated into urban design for mental health. Depending on your city's priorities, you may wish to segment into general mental health, young people's mental health, older people's mental health, drug/alcohol users' mental health, etc, and you should include the evidence-based design factors for mental health (green, active, pro-social, and safe places).
- Examples: Describe a selection of urban projects in your city that explicitly considered the support and promotion of good mental health.
- Lessons: Outline lessons from your city that may be relevant to other cities, and opportunities for your city to further improve its approach to urban design for mental health.
STEPS
1. Confirm: Email us to register your plans and to confirm that nobody else is already working on a review for your chosen city. Particularly in the case of larger cities, you may choose to focus on a particular section of the city, e.g. Shinjuku in Tokyo, or Harlem in New York City. Please confirm estimated timeline to allow for publication planning.
2. Literature review: Conduct a review of the literature and produce two sections. Please make sure all statistics and other facts are appropriately cited:
A) Brief overview of mental health in the city. Mention any available mental health statistics for the city, with a focus on depression, anxiety and dementia, though you may consider any mental disorder, and you may include symptoms, such as low mood and stress. Identify any particular problems faced by your city that may have impact on population mental health (for example unemployment, crime, large population of IV drug users, aging population, etc).
B) Summary of the city's historical and current urban planning and design context. Briefly describe general approaches the city has taken to urban planning and design, and any particular rationale for these approaches. Briefly comment on how this design approach / city layout may impact on mental health, eg. are older people living alone in a setting that reduces community interaction? Apply the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health’s Mind the Gaps framework as part of this summary. Include a summary of where mental health is included (or is missing) in the city's urban planning/design guidelines, if available.
3. Identify key informants: Use snowball sampling (non-probability sampling) to identify at least ten: architects, urban planners, public health specialists, and other relevant citymakers in your city. At least some of these should have particular knowledge or interest in the topic of health or mental health in the context of urban planning/design. The Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health will share planned case study cities with our networks and informants may also present themselves for consideration.
The snowball sampling technique is appropriate since professionals who are interested in urban design and mental health are not always obvious or easy to identify; however, people working in this niche field often know others who share their interests and can suggest who you should interview next.
4. Interview key informants: Conduct semi-structured interviews with key informants using the attached proforma, which you can feel free to adapt to fit your needs.
5. Conduct qualitative analysis: Review the semi-structured interview results and extract key themes and quotations. Use the results to describe prioritisation and principles of urban design for mental health in your city. You should then write this up (you may also include infographics if appropriate). In your report, please include relevant quotations to illustrate your analysis and describe your key informants by their profession (eg ‘urban planner, New York City) rather than using names. Please focus your analysis into two sections:
A) Prioritisation: Understand the extent to which your city takes mental health into account in urban planning and design (bringing in the perspective of the architects, planners and policymakers you interviewed, plus examining relevant city policies for mental health considerations. Please also comment on whether health is generally considered a priority in urban planning and design in this city, and how mental health fits in: general, children, older people, and others’ mental health as relevant.
B) Principles: Describe the key rationale and design principles expressed by the architects, planners and policymakers in your city about how they believe various aspects of mental health promotion can be best integrated into urban design (e.g. more parks, increasing security, etc). Alongside any specific comments about mental health or disorders, include any comments on increasing happiness, reducing stress, reducing social isolation, etc. Depending on your city's priorities, you may choose to segment into general mental health, young people's mental health, older people's mental health, drug/alcohol users' mental health, etc. Discuss the alignment (or otherwise) with the Mind the Gaps framework.
6. Case studies: Describe 2-4 urban projects in your city (hopefully identified in the course of your literature search and/or interviews) that have intentionally taken into account the promotion of good mental health, or other aspects of this city's design that affect mental health. Briefly describe the specific design features that are relevant to mental health, and if possible, mention why the planners/designers incorporated good mental health into their projects. Take photographs if possible.
7. Conduct a SWOT analysis based on your research that focuses on urban design to promote mental health in your city: succinctly identify the strengths and weaknesses of the city's current approach to urban design to promote good mental health, and highlight where there are opportunities and threats regarding improvement of the approach.
8. Lessons and Recommendations: Conclude with a succinct list of any lessons/recommendations (a) for this city and (b) for other cities.
9. Submit: Submit to [email protected] to be considered for publication in the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health. Please include the names and affiliations of all authors, including headshots, brief biographies and Twitter details (if available).
2. Literature review: Conduct a review of the literature and produce two sections. Please make sure all statistics and other facts are appropriately cited:
A) Brief overview of mental health in the city. Mention any available mental health statistics for the city, with a focus on depression, anxiety and dementia, though you may consider any mental disorder, and you may include symptoms, such as low mood and stress. Identify any particular problems faced by your city that may have impact on population mental health (for example unemployment, crime, large population of IV drug users, aging population, etc).
B) Summary of the city's historical and current urban planning and design context. Briefly describe general approaches the city has taken to urban planning and design, and any particular rationale for these approaches. Briefly comment on how this design approach / city layout may impact on mental health, eg. are older people living alone in a setting that reduces community interaction? Apply the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health’s Mind the Gaps framework as part of this summary. Include a summary of where mental health is included (or is missing) in the city's urban planning/design guidelines, if available.
3. Identify key informants: Use snowball sampling (non-probability sampling) to identify at least ten: architects, urban planners, public health specialists, and other relevant citymakers in your city. At least some of these should have particular knowledge or interest in the topic of health or mental health in the context of urban planning/design. The Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health will share planned case study cities with our networks and informants may also present themselves for consideration.
The snowball sampling technique is appropriate since professionals who are interested in urban design and mental health are not always obvious or easy to identify; however, people working in this niche field often know others who share their interests and can suggest who you should interview next.
4. Interview key informants: Conduct semi-structured interviews with key informants using the attached proforma, which you can feel free to adapt to fit your needs.
5. Conduct qualitative analysis: Review the semi-structured interview results and extract key themes and quotations. Use the results to describe prioritisation and principles of urban design for mental health in your city. You should then write this up (you may also include infographics if appropriate). In your report, please include relevant quotations to illustrate your analysis and describe your key informants by their profession (eg ‘urban planner, New York City) rather than using names. Please focus your analysis into two sections:
A) Prioritisation: Understand the extent to which your city takes mental health into account in urban planning and design (bringing in the perspective of the architects, planners and policymakers you interviewed, plus examining relevant city policies for mental health considerations. Please also comment on whether health is generally considered a priority in urban planning and design in this city, and how mental health fits in: general, children, older people, and others’ mental health as relevant.
B) Principles: Describe the key rationale and design principles expressed by the architects, planners and policymakers in your city about how they believe various aspects of mental health promotion can be best integrated into urban design (e.g. more parks, increasing security, etc). Alongside any specific comments about mental health or disorders, include any comments on increasing happiness, reducing stress, reducing social isolation, etc. Depending on your city's priorities, you may choose to segment into general mental health, young people's mental health, older people's mental health, drug/alcohol users' mental health, etc. Discuss the alignment (or otherwise) with the Mind the Gaps framework.
6. Case studies: Describe 2-4 urban projects in your city (hopefully identified in the course of your literature search and/or interviews) that have intentionally taken into account the promotion of good mental health, or other aspects of this city's design that affect mental health. Briefly describe the specific design features that are relevant to mental health, and if possible, mention why the planners/designers incorporated good mental health into their projects. Take photographs if possible.
7. Conduct a SWOT analysis based on your research that focuses on urban design to promote mental health in your city: succinctly identify the strengths and weaknesses of the city's current approach to urban design to promote good mental health, and highlight where there are opportunities and threats regarding improvement of the approach.
8. Lessons and Recommendations: Conclude with a succinct list of any lessons/recommendations (a) for this city and (b) for other cities.
9. Submit: Submit to [email protected] to be considered for publication in the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health. Please include the names and affiliations of all authors, including headshots, brief biographies and Twitter details (if available).
Of note:
- When you register to complete a city case study, the city will be listed on our cities page, and if others are interested in participating, UD/MH will forward their details to you so that you can involve them as appropriate.
- In addition to publication on our cities page, all case studies will be considered for publication in the biannual Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health. Deadlines are 30 May and 30 November each year.
Documents
|
Mind the GAPS framework
|
| ||
|
Interview proforma
|
| ||
|
Report proforma
|
| ||