Glasgow Centre for Population Health Podcast

It seems we are in trouble. Two recent reports – the Stern Report on the economic impact of climate change for the UK Treasury and that of International Panel on Climate Change – suggest that human activity has serious environmental consequences, such as global warming.

The almost insatiable demands on natural resources by giant emerging economies like China and India are new as is that in East Europe. Yet more than two billion people still live in abject poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Their basic needs and demands must be fulfilled. Can all of this be sustained in the context of inexorable GDP growth being the exclusive measure of material fulfillment and happiness? How can we find an ethical economic response when demands are increasing, resources are declining and damage to the fabric of the ecosphere on which we all depend upon for life is becoming obvious?

One way forward is suggested by the traditional Indian thought of humans being a part of nature and therefore helping to sustain it. A starting point may to be distinguish between demands and needs. While demands can be infinite and never satisfied, needs are finite and can be met within the sustainable paradigm.

The important task of defining these needs raises questions of ethics. How can we address environmental, social and economic questions simultaneously? The challenge is to try and develop a set of ethical values or even a way of thinking that is broadly acceptable, practical and yet encourages us to continue our search for answers to the unknown in the universe both within and without.

The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) is one of India’s leading economic policy think tanks and Rajiv Kumar, a graduate of Oxford and Lucknow Universities has recently been advising the President of India on Globalisation, based on scenarios for Indian development which he developed with others for the World Economic Forum.

In this lecture he will combine his extensive economic experience with his interest in human flourishing to explore these issues and their implications for wellbeing.

Public health is facing a cruel paradox. On the one hand, concern about the public's health has never been higher and issues like obesity, alcohol misuse, growing inequalities in health, and environmental degradation compete for attention on the policy agenda. On the other hand, there is widespread dismay over the means available to address these complex public health challenges. Either they seem inadequate for the task or they are poorly implemented. Whether it is the workforce charged with health improvement and its fitness for purpose, the slender finances available for public health causes, the weak incentive structure to bring about the shift from sickness to health, or the ethical tension between the nanny state and the individual in making lifestyle choices, those engaged in improving the public's health have arguably never worked in such a fraught and confused environment.

In this seminar Prof Hunter explored whether we need a new approach to health leadership and governance in order to provide public health policy with a new sense of purpose and the means to succeed. Does the political will exist to undertake the necessary action? Or is the ‘culture of contentment’ too entrenched to bring about the necessary paradigm shift?

Stress is a condition of the mind that differs among individuals and reflects not only major life events but also the conflicts and pressures of daily life that elevate physiological systems so as to cause a chronic stress burden. This burden reflects not only the impact of life experiences but also of genetic load and early life experiences that set life-long patterns of behaviours and physiological reactivity.

While hormones associated with the chronic stress burden protect the body in the short-run and promote adaptation, in the long run they promote changes in the body that impair function, for the immune system and the brain.

In this lecture, Professor McEwen will discuss how social ordering in human society is associated with gradients of disease, and describe the relationship between mortality, morbidity and socioeconomic status.

Though these relationships are complex, Professor McEwen will argue that they are likely to reflect, not only differences in lifestyle, but also the cumulative burden of coping with limited resources and negative life events and the resulting chronic impact on physiological systems of adaptation.

In this lecture Professor McAra-McWilliam explored the application of creativity and imagination in addressing complex challenges in a world that is perceived to be increasingly uncertain and undergoing rapid change. Using her own work on the Creative Imagination, she argued that design processes can generate alternative directions and visions, based on the values which we want to support in our societies. These can therefore work as ‘antidotes’ and alternatives within the discourse of globalisation and individualisation.

This lecture used case studies from McAra-McWilliam’s work with Hewlett Packard, Philips and the European Union ‘Connected Community’ research programme which she pioneered. These examples explored how design can foster social and technological innovation with properties which enhance wellbeing.

In aiming to promote conversation within a community about how life practices can be changed

for the better health and flourishing of its individual members, a crucial question is how that

conversation is initiated, and by whom. A rich source of ideas is provided by looking at examples

of thinking about 'promoting the good life' in the Western tradition, especially in Renaissance

humanism and the eighteenth century debate about the role of the arts. This lecture will focus on

these debates and their contemporary relevance.

This lecture examined the effects of urban design on health, placing it in the larger context of planning and public health, and proposed solutions that combine public health and urban planning strategies relevant for the 21st century. Dr Frumkin spoke of public health lying at the heart of urban planning in the early 20th century, but since then, the growth of cities has occurred in relatively unplanned ways. Urban sprawl — the expansion of cities into rural areas, heavy reliance on automobiles, low-density, low-mix land use patterns — represents one extreme, especially in North America and Australia, but increasingly in Europe as well. At the other extreme we have high density, overcrowded, creaking infrastructure. Frumkin described how urban planning and design may affect health in a variety of ways: threatening air quality, impeding physical activity, increasing injury risks, and eroding social capital are but a few examples.

From a starting point that emphasised the changing nature of the world and the

globalisation of everyday life, this lecture demonstrated the many ways in which

globalisation impacts on health, and health impacts on globalisation. Dr Kickbusch

explored the implications of 'good global governance for health', and the possibility of

achieving a global healthy treaty.

This lecture presented the case for lay knowledge and theories to be taken more

seriously. Professor Popay argued that lay knowledge is sophisticated, helps to

answer questions about meaning and experience, and should be treated as an 'equal

but different' voice in informing decision-making about policy and practice.

In this lecture, Prof Devine argued that over the past twenty five years Scotland has

undergone a remarkable series of changes in economy, society and culture. While

they are similar in scope and scale to those of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th

century, they have largely been unnoticed or ignored. Prof Devine asked the

questions 'how did we arrive here?' and 'how does this view sit with the more usual

view of Scotland as a downtrodden underperforming underdog?'.

This lecture (the first in the second seminar series) explored the relationships between

psychology, biology, physiology and socio-economic status. Prof Steptoe shared many

interesting insights concerning health and health inequality, developed by the emerging

field of psychobiology.