Place, Health, and Diversity

Health Equity and Diversity-Focused Research

Although health equity and diversity-focused research has begun to gain momentum, there is still a paucity of research from health geographers that explicitly explores how geographic factors, such as place, space, scale, community, and location, inform multiple axes of difference.

Such axes can include residential location, age, sex, gender, race/ethnicity, culture, religion, socio-economic status, marital status, sexual orientation, education level, and immigration status.

The Canadian Context

Specifically focusing on Canada’s rapidly changing society, which is becoming increasingly pluralized and diverse, this book examines the place-health-diversity intersection in this national context.

The Role of Health Geographers

Health geographers are well positioned to offer a valuable contribution to diversity-focused research because place is inextricably linked to differential experiences of health.

For example, access to health care and health-promoting services and resources is largely influenced by where one is physically and socially situated within the web of diversity.

Furthermore, applying geographic concepts like place, in both the physical and social sense, allows researchers to explore multiple axes of difference simultaneously.

Insights from Geographic Perspectives

Such geographic perspectives, as presented in this book, offer new insights into what makes diverse people, in diverse places, with access to diverse resources (un)healthy in different ways in Canada and beyond.