Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

This paper proposes a new conceptual framework based on complex system theory to understand health inequities and wellbeing, focusing on the effects of neoliberal policies on urban health. We argue that the transformation of urban Mexican society under the economic and political model implemented between 1980-2017 has been a transversal repercussion over all social determinants of health equity and well-being. The aim of our study is to develop a better coherent analytical frame to get in deep understanding ofhow an integrated global economy can affect the health of populations. To reach this objective we made a transdisciplinary exercise, mapping the process of social and political constructioninto a structural model where Mexican policy-making takes place. Through system modeling we map a dynamic space of conflict, where territorial social pacts materialize and shape the management of public policy as a result power struggles between intersectoral social actors. The resulting conceptual model illustrate at macro level the pattern of interaction between relevant social actors from a political community that operate simultaneously at different geographical levels of governance; and some of its impacts on upstream and downstream determinants of urban health inequalities and population wellbeing. This kind of theoretical and methodological developments will contribute to reveal clues about fundamental heterogeneous drivers and emergent mechanisms that produce a contingent health outcome and show some areas of potential intervention to prevent and mitigate negative effects of neoliberalism on health equity and wellbeing of the working population at industrial urban contexts.