Fostering Effective Interdisciplinary Collaboration between the Built Environment and Health

The supportive role of the built environment for human health is a rapidly growing area of interdisciplinary research, evidence-based policy development and related practice. Yet despite closely linked origins, today the professions of public health and urban planning largely operate in the neo-liberal framework of academic, political and policy silos. A reinvigorated relationship between the two is essential if we are to foster an effective healthy built environment profession. A recent systematic review of the burgeoning literature on healthy built environments identified an emergent theme which we have labelled “Professional Development”. This relatively new domain of scholarship relates to the development of relationships between health and built environment professionals. It covers case studies illustrating good practice models for policy change, as well as research on cost benefit analysis and market demand to encourage appropriate policy. Intertwined with this empirical research is a dialogue on theoretical tensions emerging as health and built environment professionals and academics seek to establish mutual understanding and respect. The nature of evidence required to justify policy change, for example, has surfaced as an area of asynchrony between accepted disciplinary protocols. Our paper discusses this important body of literature with a view to initiating and supporting the ongoing evolution of interdisciplinary exchange between the health and built environment disciplines.