Health Promotion Paradigms

At the heart of health promotion is a very distinct ideology and suite of valuessuch as inequity, fairness, and justice aligned with progressive social change.Entangled in this futuristic pathway are deafening calls for health promotion toreflect upon its history, reconsider its positionality and recognize in action theurgency of addressing health inequities perpetuated by silenced voices, unconscious bias, and structural racism. Planetary health – the idea humans can only survive and thrive if individuals consider themselves part of the natural ecosystem and act accordingly – has become embedded in this progressive health promotion paradigm. Consequently, the Ottawa Charter has come under scrutiny and its contemporary relevance challenged. Fundamentally, health promotion is a social, ethical, and political activity. To this end, health promotion draws on an eclectic assortment of multidisciplinary theories. Many existing health promotion theories assume cartesian splits and perpetuate colonial injustices. Contemporary and liberal theory building is more important than ever to address decolonial health promotion including, for example, posthuman and new materialist theories.Increasingly, the critical use of evidence, a critical realist lens, the testing oftheory, and the translation of knowledge are the bedrock of health promotionpedagogy. As this approach strengthens so too will the currently underdeveloped professional identity existing in health promotion practitioners. This in turn, along with other forces such as competency-based practice and global benchmarking, will continue to build a strong, resilient, and impactful health promotion workforce to deal with complex and urgent health issues in the future