Salutogenic community building

This paper explores a new approach to community building. It is based on the concept of salutogenesis; a proactive approach to community health which seeks preventative measures instead of the traditional reactionary corrective and curative culture of public health care. Increasingly organizations are concerned with sustainable healthy work forces but they often lack a coherent mechanism for doing so. Salutogenesis focuses on coping ability, social cohesion and community development by increasing social capital. This critical-interpretive research is based on data collected in a 9 month ethnographic study of social workers, health professionals and information technologists of a Norwegian-based non-government organization involved in community health promotion. The main aim was to develop a well-formed understanding of the three salutogenic criteria; comprehensibility, manageability and meaningfulness in terms of community building processes. It was found that collaborating, planning ...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2007
• Where: IJWBC
• Authors: Khamphira Viravong
• Keywords: Community, Community Building, Community Health, IJWBC 2007