Rethinking flourishing: Critical insights and qualitative perspectives from the U.S. Midwest.

In recent years, human flourishing and its relationship to mental health have attracted significant attention in a wide range of fields. As an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods team with strong roots in critical medical anthropology and critical public health, we are intrigued by the possibility that a focus on flourishing may reinvigorate health research, policy, and clinical care in transformative ways. Yet current proposals to this effect, we contend, must be met with caution.

Visualizing Health Equity: Qualitative Perspectives on the Value and Limits of Equity Images.

Background: Health educators and advocacy groups often use side-by-side visual images to communicate about equity and to distinguish it from equality. Despite the near-ubiquity of these images, little is known about how they are understood by different audiences.

Aims: To assess the effectiveness of an image commonly used to communicate about health equity.

Learning to See Racism: Perspective Transformation Among Stakeholders in a Regional Health and Equity Initiative.

Context: Achieving a meaningful reduction in health inequities will require not only policy and programmatic changes but also an increased understanding of structural racism and its deleterious impact on health and well-being. One way to enhance understanding is to actively promote "perspective transformation" (PT) around race among health equity stakeholders. Experiences of PT are defined as moments or events that bring about a deepened understanding of racism and that may result in new ways of thinking and acting.

People and places shaping food procurement among recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

A key gap in existing food environment research is a more complex understanding of the interplay between physical and social contexts, including the influence of social networks on food habits. This mixed methods research examined the nature of social connections at food procurement places among a sample of 30 people receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in an urban setting. Results highlight the significance of social connections as motivators to use food places, the value of access to information and other resources at food places, and the role of weak ties with actors within food places to facilitate utilization and interaction.

Food Melt in Consumer Food Environments in Low-income Urban Neighborhoods.

Objectives: We systematically evaluated changes in availability, price, and quality of perishable food items from the beginning to the end of the month in lowincome, urban neighborhoods.

Methods: The sample included grocery stores or supermarkets in Cleveland, Ohio, within neighborhoods with >30% of population receiving food assistance. We collected data for 2 sequential months during the first and fourth weeks of each month.

The Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition: "we have evolved".

Several pieces of legislation passed in Cleveland, Ohio, from 2007 to 2011, focused on improving the city's food environment through urban agriculture initiatives. We used qualitative, case study methods, including interviews with 7 key informants, to examine the policy development process and investigate the role of the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Food Policy Coalition in developing and implementing 4 pieces of legislation. In this article, we focus on 2 pieces of legislation: zoning designation of an urban garden and allowance of small farm animals and bees on residential property.