RHP&EO is the electronic journal of the International
Union for Health Promotion and Education
|
|
|
On image, ownership and open space Hans Saan, NIGZ (Netherlands Institute for Health Education), the Netherlands, Saan, Hans, On image, ownership and open space, Reviews of Health Promotion and Education Online, 2005. URL:24/index.htm. It is most interesting to see how we negotiate about the Bangkok Charter. The vigour shows how much many of us are fully engaged in health promotion and are ready to debate their principles and values. That in itself is a good sign of how health promotion is alive and kicking. I would like to add to the debate three arguments, that relate not so much to the content, but to the positioning and style of that declaration. My first observation has to do with the logo of the conference. The Ottawa logo is a great trade mark and the variations in each of the following conferences added to the impact of that image without destroying it. I liked the curves of the shapes, the escape from the circular form, the beauty of its simplicity. It sends a message on concepts, by putting them in a dynamic pattern. The Ottawa logo had a one to one fit with the charter, so it worked as a didactic tool too. Now the Bangkok conference chooses a logo that overlaps the Ottawa image with a human figure in a green circle. It remains to be seen how that image relates with the content of the statement. It has not yet won a prize in my beauty contest. The second argument has to do with language. The drafts of the text circulated so far had many boring sentences of a rather abstract language. It seeks to inspire, but it misses the feeling of innovativeness and border crossing that made the Ottawa Charter then such a challenging text. Taken into account the context of the statement being produced, buropolicy language seems unavoidable, but I wonder what would happen if the now final sentence: We the participants . like the famous We the people . were put first. It might have a refreshing impact on the text if We promise something to Us, to You and to All. My final argument will embrace the two mentioned. So far the text and the conference have four tracks. Now four is a closed number: it evokes seasons, directions, so rather stable situations. Health promotion deserves a more dynamic approach, so I propose (in line with a book about the Rule of Four) to apply a Rule of Five. Put in the text and the conference a fifth track labelled Open Space. That area invites innovative approaches that people find not yet covered in the other four tracks. It will help to lower the pressure on the four tracks to be all-inclusive and by putting at the conference a room apart for this fifth track, in which we are ready for the surprise. Health promotion always is on the lookout for the possible, for unexpected knots in a pattern, for opportunities for innovative empowerment. In that open space some workshops may provoke creative approaches to the issues at hand. Agenda setting could be done on the spot, people vote with their feet, the output should be at most five sentences or items, to fit with the format of the other tracks. My suggestions for workshops: a competition for a Bangkok Logo and a workshop with experienced text writers and journalists on a We the People version of the Charter.
| |||
|
|