Integrative concepts and practices of health in transdisciplinary social ecology

Abstract

Increasing recognition of interdependencies of the health of humans, other organisms and ecosystems, and of their importance to socio-ecological systems, necessitates application of integrative concepts such as One Health and EcoHealth. These concepts open new perspectives for research and practice but also generate confusion and divergent opinion, prompting new theories, and call for empirical clarification and evaluation. Through a semi-systematic evaluation of knowledge generation in scientific publications (comprised of literature reviews, conceptual models and analyses of communities of practice), we show how integrative concepts and approaches to health evolve and are adopted. Our findings indicate that while their contexts, goals and rationales vary, integrative concepts of health essentially arise from shared interests in living systems. Despite recent increased attention to ecological and societal aspects of health including broader sustainability issues, the focus remains anthropocentric and oriented towards biomedicine. Practices reflect and in turn transform these concepts, which together with practices also influence ways of integration. Overarching narratives vary between optimism and pessimism towards integrated health and knowledge. We conclude that there is an urgent need for better, coherent and more deeply integrative health concepts, approaches and practices to foster the well-being of humans, other animals and ecosystems. Consideration of these concepts and practices has methodological and political importance, as it will transform thinking and action on both society and nature and specifically can enrich science and practice, expanding their scope and linking them better. Transdisciplinary efforts are crucial to developing such concepts and practices to properly address the multiple facets of health and to achieve their appropriate integration for the socio-ecological systems at stake. We propose the term "transdisciplinary health" to denote the new approaches needed.

Tsetse Invasion as an Emerging Threat to Socioecological Resilience of Pastoral Communities in Karamoja, Uganda

“…Collaborative co-creation of solutions brings stakeholders together to share knowledge and form networks that are vital in guiding intervention strategies and practices that increase socioecological resilience [86]. Furthermore, through these approaches, practitioners are in a better position to engage policymakers, decision leaders and local communities to adopt scale-and transboundary-level interventions [87,88]. This process is particularly important because resilience and sustainable development are possible only within a context where the processes affecting and the processes affected by the health of ecosystems and human societies are holistically considered [87,89].…”

“…Furthermore, through these approaches, practitioners are in a better position to engage policymakers, decision leaders and local communities to adopt scale-and transboundary-level interventions [87,88]. This process is particularly important because resilience and sustainable development are possible only within a context where the processes affecting and the processes affected by the health of ecosystems and human societies are holistically considered [87,89]. In this regard, it will not be necessary to separate planning for wildlife grazing and watering needs from that of cattle.…”

Qualitative Research for One Health: From Methodological Principles to Impactful Applications

“…Employing a method without properly considering or developing an understanding of the methodology means that the rationale for using a particular method is absent-as is the lens through which analysis takes place. Against this background it has been repeatedly observed that qualitative studies are largely absent from One Health research as currently construed, which has implications for the policy and real-world relevance of basic science and epidemiological studies that focus on the human-animalenvironment interface (1,2,99,100). By implication, we should prioritize efforts to recruit, train, and retain a cadre of qualitative researchers who specialize in One Health (98,99).…”

China’s ongoing battle against the coronavirus: Why did the lockdown strategy work well?

“…As such, we should be more mindful and prudent in advocating and pursuing such honorable ideals as One Health, EcoHealth, or integrative health in socio-ecological practice and research (Fig. 6; for a recent review of these ideals, see Assmuth et al 2019). Liding Chen is a research professor in the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.…”