Setting-based interventions have been widely acknowledged as a way forward in health promotion aiming at fostering participation and empowerment, and contributing to a reduction of health inequalities. However, initiating participation among vulnerable subgroups face many difficulties.
This paper explores new ways of mobilising and incorporating local knowledge and resources. The study was conducted in a marginalised neighbourhood of a provincial town in Denmark with several health promotion activities driven at the municipal level. The study identified social networks of residents who participated in these activities but in addition the social networks of groups who met regularly to practice hookah smoking, groups who met to read the Quran, and groups who met to drink beer. Data collection method included questionnaires, walking interviews, and participatory mapping to identify perception and experience of both egos and alters concerning health-related decision making. The data analysis focused on centrality measures of network data (Freeman, 1979), the flow of influence as well as clusters and cliques in the personal networks (Scott, 2000).
The study uncovered centrally positioned individuals in the marginalised neighbourhood. In-depth interviews with these were conducted on their views and understandings as potential resources for asset-based and locally adapted health promotion and as social catalysts (Rütten et al, 2007). The paper concludes that social networks constitute an important and partly untapped resource in health promotion initiatives as ‘structures of opportunity’ as they mediate and moderate the harsh circumstances of people’s lives and their lived experiences of health and wellbeing.