Paper short abstract:

This paper reflects on the use of action-research as a tool to foster participation for health promotion, both in the process of generating knowledge on the local factors that affect health inequalities, and in engaging a diversity of voices in the discussion on the possible actions to address them.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to reflect on the use of action-research as a tool to create a participatory field in the context of health promotion. The reflection is based on an action-research project conducted from 2017 to 2022 in Bologna (Italy), aiming to explore the distribution of health inequalities in the city and support actions to tackle them. Combining phases of quantitative and qualitative research, the project unveiled relevant differences in health outcomes throughout the city.

Since the beginning of the qualitative phase coincided with the Covid-19 pandemic’s outbreak (Feb. 2020), the fieldwork had to be reconfigured. On one hand, the use of digital tools allowed the group to create and maintain links with local actors, on the other, it undermined the potential of collective action and reflection at the core of action-research approaches. Nevertheless, the data collected have been shared with key community actors living and/or working in the city areas that are most exposed to inequalities. In later stages, some of them have been involved in discussing which actions could be implemented to promote health and equity in their neighbourhoods.

Building participatory spaces of collective discussion on the local factors that affect health inequalities, and the possible actions to address them, proved to be a key potential of the action-research process. Managing power within such spaces, particularly to promote the engagement of the voices that are most marginalised (or silenced) and on issues that truly matter for their health, is among the greatest challenges that need to be faced.