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Posted Wed, 5 Oct 2005 03:01:05
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Invitation to Submit Paper Proposals for a Proposed Special Issue of Social Science & Medicine on: ‘Placing Health in Context’
Guest Editor:
James R. Dunn, Ph.D.
Centre for Research on Inner City Health
St. Michael’s Hospital
Toronto, ON M5B 1W8
CANADA
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel: (416) 864-6060 x. 3313
Fax: (416) 864-5485
In a number of disciplines, there has been a growth of interest in the ‘effect’ that attributes of places have on health. The argument has been that there are contextual processes operating at the scale of whole communities or geographical areas which are important for health and health inequality. This kind of research has sought to understand how, why and to what extent features of the local social environment, shape individual outcomes over and above the effect of individual-level factors. Attention has focused for example, on collective social organization, the local built environment and differences between areas in facilities and services. This body of research has been assisted by advances in methods for studying the effect of contexts on health empirically, including marked innovations through development of multi-level modelling and much more attention to context in qualitative studies.
This perspective on health variation is now starting to be subject to critical and sophisticated debate. Several authors have enumerated many of the problems and challenges of neighbourhood contexts and health research, but researchers are now seeking more theoretically and methodologically advanced approaches to answer the unanswered questions about the importance of social and geographical context for health variation. This special issue will bring together a number of papers that demonstrate the latest developments in research around this theme and forge a new direction forward for future research in the area.
Proposals for papers to an ‘agenda-setting’ special issue of Social Science and Medicine are therefore invited from interested authors. Please note that not all proposals will be accepted and that the special issue has not yet been confirmed. The special issue will be granted on the basis of the quality of proposed papers. All papers will go through the customary blinded peer review process at Social Science and Medicine. Acceptance of a paper proposal, therefore, does not guarantee your paper will be accepted.
The following factors that point to the timeliness of an agenda-setting special issue on this topic from SSM:
· a very rapid recent growth of interest in the ‘effect’ that attributes of places (at multiple scales, from the neighbourhood to the region) have on health and the potential for place-based policy to address health disparities
· the contribution of several disciplines to this burgeoning literature
· a relative lack of adequate theory to explain neighbourhood effects
· significant differences between scholars in the field on appropriate methods and the role and importance of theory in explaining place effects (in part reflecting disciplinary differences)
· a number of published commentaries that have enumerated the limitations, shortcomings and obstacles to understanding place effects, but relatively few creative solutions to these problems
The intent is to provide a special issue that is ‘agenda-setting’ and provides disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives on place and contextual effects on health.
Proposed Timetable
It is planned to select paper proposals quite rigorously in the first instance in terms of their critical and forward thinking focus on this debate. If the special issue proposal is approved by the Editorial Board of SSM, then full papers will be invited and these will undergo the usual SSM review process, overseen by the relevant Senior Editor of SSM, in consultation with the Guest Editor. The following timetable will be followed as strictly as possible:
Oct. 31, 2005 Deadline to send proposals to [log in to unmask] Proposals should include, at a mimimum, a title, proposed authors and a one-page summary of the planned article. Selected paper proposals are forwarded to the SSM Editorial Board
Nov. 30, 2005 SSM Editorial Board makes decision on special issue. Approved authors are invited to submit full papers.
Feb 28, 2006 Deadline for the Guest Editor to receive completed manuscripts. These are sent for review through the appropriate Senior Editorial Office of SSM.
May 15, 2005 Peer review reports are returned and authors advised of the specifications for revisions
July 15, 2006 Final revised manuscripts received by the relevant Senior Editors
Sept. 15, 2006 Finalize typesetting, proofing, and papers placed in press online
Feb 15, 2007 Publication of special issue
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James R. Dunn, Ph.D.
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Research Scientist
Inner-City Health Research Unit, St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto
Assistant Professor
Departments of Public Health and Geography, University of Toronto
Address:
Inner City Health Research Unit
St. Michael's Hospital
30 Bond St.
Toronto, ON M5B 1W8
Tel: (416) 864-6060 ext. 3313
Fax: (416) 864-5485
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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