TY - JOUR
T1 - The assets-based approach: furthering a neoliberal agenda or rediscovering the old public health? A critical examination of practitioner discourses
AU - Roy, Michael J.
N1 - Acceptance from webpage
Final pub date: YYYY only on publisher website, used date from Crossref.
Gold OA (RCUK block grant)
AAM: 12m embargo; replaced with VoR when made Gold OA.
Funding note:
This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and Medical Research Council [grant number MR/
L0032827/1].
Compliant with funder policy.
Applied Gold exception, in hybrid journal and to best of our knowledge this was immediate OA. ET 10/8/20
PY - 2017/8/8
Y1 - 2017/8/8
N2 - The 'assets-based approach' to health and well-being has, on the one hand, been presented as a potentially empowering means to address the social determinants of health while, on the other, been criticised for obscuring structural drivers of inequality and encouraging individualisation and marketisation; in essence, for being a tool of neoliberalism. This study looks at how this apparent contestation plays out in practice through a critical realist-inspired examination of practitioner discourses, specifically of those working within communities to address social vulnerabilities that we know impact upon health. The study finds that practitioners interact with the assets-based policy discourse in interesting ways. Rather than unwitting tools of neoliberalism, they considered their work to be about mitigating the worst effects of poverty and social vulnerability in ways that enhance collectivism and solidarity, concepts that neoliberalism arguably seeks to disrupt. Furthermore, rather than a different, innovative, way of working, they consider the assets-based approach to simply be a re-labelling of what they have been doing anyway, for as long as they can remember. So, for practitioners, rather than a 'new' approach to public health, the assets-based public health movement seems to be a return to recognising and appreciating the role of community within public health policy and practice; ideals that predate neoliberalism by quite some considerable time.
AB - The 'assets-based approach' to health and well-being has, on the one hand, been presented as a potentially empowering means to address the social determinants of health while, on the other, been criticised for obscuring structural drivers of inequality and encouraging individualisation and marketisation; in essence, for being a tool of neoliberalism. This study looks at how this apparent contestation plays out in practice through a critical realist-inspired examination of practitioner discourses, specifically of those working within communities to address social vulnerabilities that we know impact upon health. The study finds that practitioners interact with the assets-based policy discourse in interesting ways. Rather than unwitting tools of neoliberalism, they considered their work to be about mitigating the worst effects of poverty and social vulnerability in ways that enhance collectivism and solidarity, concepts that neoliberalism arguably seeks to disrupt. Furthermore, rather than a different, innovative, way of working, they consider the assets-based approach to simply be a re-labelling of what they have been doing anyway, for as long as they can remember. So, for practitioners, rather than a 'new' approach to public health, the assets-based public health movement seems to be a return to recognising and appreciating the role of community within public health policy and practice; ideals that predate neoliberalism by quite some considerable time.
KW - assets based approach
KW - social enterprise
KW - public health
U2 - 10.1080/09581596.2016.1249826
DO - 10.1080/09581596.2016.1249826
M3 - Article
VL - 27
SP - 455
EP - 464
JO - Critical Public Health
JF - Critical Public Health
SN - 0958-1596
IS - 4
ER -