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Urban mental health studies traditionally search for causal relationships between elements of the city and the prevalence of mental disorders. This paper discusses the importance of (re)thinking the 'lived urban experience' from the perspective of city residents about how the immediate environment affects their mental health and how people cope with inequalities. A participatory-action research was implemented in a peripheral area of São Paulo – Brazil, in which volunteers from the territory made phone calls to neighbours to provide emotional support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Weekly supervision meetings were held between volunteers and researchers to discuss the experiences shared by community counterparts. Narratives have shown that the lived experience in the city is mediated by multiple layers of 'urban insecurities'. These difficulties pressured people to organise and resist in face of pervasive inequalities as well as to respond to unfolding experiences of social suffering. We highlight the potential of participatory methodologies to observe the ways in which subjects face their structural issues and the suffering that emerge in these circumstances. The understanding of how these conflicts are lived at a subjective level can support studies that are wondering about the mechanisms of how social conflicts 'get under the skin'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Civil society engagement around health care and population health improvement is an important driver towards Health for All. Research can improve the effectiveness of health activism by examining the resources, structures and strategies of civil society engagement. However, research to support such engagement faces epistemological and methodological challenges which call for specific research strategies. A four year multi-country study was undertaken by the People's Health Movement, a global network working for health for all. The research took place in six countries (Brazil, Colombia, DR Congo, India, Italy, South Africa) and globally, and was directed to understanding five domains of civil society engagement: movement building; campaigning and advocacy; capacity building; knowledge generation, access and use; and engaging with governance. The research plan and methods of data collection and analysis were tailored to address the objective of improving activist practice, while negotiating research challenges identified during the design phase. Results include insights into the practice of civil society engagement in relation to the five domains of activist practice, as well as experience gained in managing six methodological challenges which we describe as: making meaning, aligning research and action, managing power relations, valuing experiential knowledges, chaos and contingency, challenging preconceptions. Researching activism can produce useful insights into practice as well as support continuous improvement in the effectiveness of such activism. However, there are significant methodological challenges that can be addressed through appropriate strategies. More research, building on the approach described in this paper, can contribute to more effective civil society activism for health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to identify strategies for the advancement of intersectoral networks and equity in the context of vulnerable territories in Brazil; this is a qualitative study based on community-based participatory research (CBPR). The population of the study was composed of managers, health care and social assistance professionals, members of social movements and non-governmental organisations (NGOs); a total of 86 participants were recruited for the study. Data were collected through interviews, focus groups and a participatory forum. Data analysis was applied according to the methodological background of the dialectic hermeneutics of Jürgen Habermas, which considered communicative action theory and CBPR. The intersectoral strategies were occurring without the integration of sectors, people, and action. There is a lack of an institutional approach by the municipal government in establishing priorities, as well as shared and integrated agendas; there is a lack of human resources qualification and communities for the development of the actions to address the social determinants of health. According to the participants, the current strategies to tackle social inequities are not systematic, are insufficient, lack appropriate resources and have a limited impact on the communities. Furthermore, the civil society representatives reported that they were not included as a stakeholder or even regarded as a social mechanism to support vulnerable groups, to achieve a solution, to lead on or manage their context of poverty and inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the implementation of Lean health care techniques in a surgery department of a Brazilian hospital. The proposed Lean methodology is based on a set of nested improvement cycles that are used to continuously improve the value chain. The results of the implementation showed improvement in cycle time, capacity, and savings in costs. Another important improvement was a significant reduction of 94 percent in the index of delayed surgery due to the lack of materials and a reduction in postsurgery infection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article examines the promotion and adoption of action research as an instrument of institutional change by academic staff in a Brazilian rural university. The results of the research are presented showing the mobilisation of a group of volunteers, the implementation of their action research projects and the sustainability of the process. Particular attention is drawn to the significance of an insider change agent/facilitator as the initiator of the action research process and how his role became superfluous as the networks evolved into true communities of practice. On reflection the original composite daisy model of Melrose and Reid has been discarded in favour of a simpler buttercup-type flower model of analysis to describe the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study deals with the development of a graphic representation tool as a way to support educational planning in an elementary school in the rural area of Brasilia (Brazil's capital), aiming at the implementation of an integrated action-research project focusing on hunger and nutrition. The graphic tool made it possible to promote dialogical-reflexive interactions among school teachers as to the identification of competencies and skills in elementary education curriculum and generating apprenticeship themes, scientific concepts, and educational activities. It also constitutes a useful tool for the teaching staff to realize the interdependences among the many school subjects, and to understand their practices, thus leading to self-evaluation with greater awareness for potential for transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global forest loss has attracted increasing concern, research, education, and regulation. Conservation, development, and restoration programs have been established, with scattered successes and widespread intensified forest loss. Forest poverty and the inadequacy of forest-based livelihoods have been linked to forest degradation or loss in forest regions worldwide; forest poverty problems have been attacked with energy and creativity. Nevertheless, with few exceptions, forest people have continued to be poor enough to have no apparent alternative to clearing more forest, if there is still more forest; or to consider, in great numbers, moving to city slums. Our forests have continued to be damaged at alarming rates. The question arose in many places: “What could make these forest efforts more effective?” Action research—developed as a group of approaches to solving problems cooperatively, often as collaborations across social, educational, and economic strata, and designed specifically to ground research on the identified needs of communities and to link that research to action—seemed the strongest available resource. Diverse forest organizations had shown a surprising inability to look at strengths and successes; this had weakened them. A recent form of action research, Appreciative Inquiry (AI), had developed in response to overlooked strengths; and AI provided the central organizing structure for the action research described here. This study is intended to modify and evaluate this group of resources for work in forests, in a case study in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]