Launch of King's Social Science and Urban Public Health Institute

The Social Science and Urban Public Health Institute celebrated its official launch on 26 April at The Exchange, Bush House in London.

Institute leads Professor Judith Green (Chair in Sociology of Health, School of Population Health & Environmental Sciences), Dr Stephani Hatch (Institute of Psychiatry) and Professor Nikolas Rose (Social Science & Public Policy) delivered the event’s opening speeches focusing on the Institute’s vision and key themes around mobility, mental health and migration.

The vision of the Institute is to apply innovative inter-disciplinary social science to urgent urban public health challenges, both in the UK and globally. The Institute is doing this by currently examining urban flows, displacement and the role of digital technologies and how these may be shaping governance, citizenship and health.

The Institute brings together King’s PhD students and academics working in social science, as well as public health practioners, policy makers and other external collaborators such as Professor Mike Kelly from the Institute of Public Health and Director of Public Health for Lewisham, Danny Ruta.

Speaking of the launch Professor Green said:

'These are exciting times to be working on urban health. There is a renewed political will to address the upstream determinants of health in cities - and social scientists are absolutely core to that. Working across disciplinary borders, the SUPHI collaboration aims to address some of the big questions in public health: how to foster mental wellbeing in the city; how to harness digital technologies for the benefit of all and how we make cities healthy places to live, work and play in.'

 Professor Nickolas Rose, Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy added:

'There is no doubt that many features of urban existence are linked to poor physical and mental health, from pollution to loneliness. But the challenge is to find ways to make cities into habitats in which individuals, families and communities can thrive – and the kind of interdisciplinary research that SUPHI will promote is essential to inform policies to make that happen.'

The launch also gave an opportunity for networking and for the Institute team to showcase some of their research in urban public health. There was a South East London community photography project, audio recordings of sounds in the city generated by participants using the Urban Mind app and a discussion board asking guests to respond to different questions about how we can foster healthier cities. 

More information about the Institute is available at suphi.kcl.ac.uk and on twitter @SUPHI_KCL. If you are interested in joining the Institute, please email suphi@kcl.ac.uk.