The Application of Salutogenesis in Communities and Neighborhoods

Communities and neighborhoods have reemerged as important settings for health promotion; they are particularly effective for encouraging social processes which may shape our life-chances and lead to improved health and well-being; consequently, as Scriven and Hodgins, (2012) note, of all the settings (cities, schools, workplaces, universities, etc.), communities are the least well defined. Indeed, within the health literature, they are frequently referred to in terms of place, identity, social entity, or collective action. This chapter on communities and neighborhoods distinguishes between settings as a place (natural and built environment), identity (sense of community), social entity (cohesion, social capital), and collective action (reactive-resilience; proactive-community action) – all meaningful categories of generalized resistance resources (GRRs). Such clearly defined GRR categories would allow the study of their relative importance for developing the sense of coherence (SOC) and a newer concept – setting-specific SOC.