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Acting-in-Context: A Methodological and Theoretical Approach to Understanding the Actions of People Living in Poverty

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Global Handbook of Health Promotion Research, Vol. 1

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Abstract

Notwithstanding health promotion efforts to put forward strategies attempting to avoid structural determinism and the pitfalls of “victim blaming”, health promotion programmes have still focused on lifestyles and behaviour changes associated with health risk factors (e.g. smoking, physical inactivity, diet) that are also associated with contexts of poverty. The social determinants of the health perspective lead us to acknowledge that individuals are not completely determined by factors outside themselves, but neither are they entirely in control of the circumstances in which they live. Therefore, health promotion needs theoretical and methodological tools to understand the interactions between individuals and their contexts, especially contexts unfavourable to health. How can we consider individuals’ actions in unfavourable contexts? This chapter will present the key elements of a study that allowed us to answer this question by focusing on the steps involved in using an ethical posture in empirical data collection and analysis strategies, ultimately within a process of theoretical development based on the data.

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Notes

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    All names and other personal identifiers in this chapter have been changed to protect privacy and confidentiality.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de techniques de travail social, Cégep du Vieux-Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Caroline Adam

  2. Canada Research Chair in Community Approaches and Health Inequalities (CACIS), Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Caroline Adam & Sylvie Gendron

  3. Faculté des sciences infirmières, University of Montreal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Sylvie Gendron

  4. School of Public Health, University of Montreal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Sylvie Gendron & Louise Potvin

  5. Centre de recherche en santé publique (CReSP), Université of Montreal and CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada

    Louise Potvin

Authors
  1. Caroline Adam
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  2. Sylvie Gendron
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  3. Louise Potvin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Caroline Adam .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Health, University of Montreal, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Louise Potvin

  2. UNESCO Chair and WHO Collaborating Centre in Global Health & Education, University of Clermont Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Didier Jourdan

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Adam, C., Gendron, S., Potvin, L. (2022). Acting-in-Context: A Methodological and Theoretical Approach to Understanding the Actions of People Living in Poverty. In: Potvin, L., Jourdan, D. (eds) Global Handbook of Health Promotion Research, Vol. 1. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97212-7_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97212-7_6

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-97211-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-97212-7

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