Government, governance, and place-based approaches: lessons from and for public policy

Place-based approaches are increasingly applied to address the determinants of health, many of which are complex problems, to ultimately improve population health outcomes. Through public policy, government actions can afect the efectiveness of place-based approaches by infuencing the conceptualisation, development, implementation, governance, and/or evaluation of place-based approaches. Despite the important role of public policy, there has been limited examination of public policy related to place-based approaches. We add to the limited knowledge base by analysing Australian national public policy, to explore: (1) the defnitions, conceptualisations, and characteristics of place-based approaches in public policy; (2) the government’s perception and communication of its role in place-based approaches; and (3) the extent to which government policy refects the necessary conditions for successful place-based governance developed by Marsh and colleagues, namely localised context, embedded learning, and reciprocal accountabilit