Doing health promotion research: Approaches, paradigms, designs and methods to produce knowledge

Abstract

Our aim in this volume is to present solutions used by researchers to advance the knowledge base and solve epistemological difficulties linked to the practice of health promotion research. In the introduction to this volume, we first describe the characteristics of the knowledge base in health promotion research. Although the database is gradually constructed through the production of new knowledge, it is not primarily built on a cumulative basis. Research weaves networks of knowledge resulting from diversified research approaches. These networks of questions, concepts, methods and results are what structures research in health promotion beyond their diversity. Then we present the two main ways of advancing knowledge in our field. The first of these ways is through the development of research approaches rooted in various conceptual frameworks (new starting points) that shed new light on practice and thus advance knowledge. We propose seven examples of such approaches based on various paradigms (critical theories, political science, economics, etc.) which are all relevant frameworks for understanding the mechanisms at work in health promotion practices. The second way is by increasingly advanced innovations in the implementation of research. We thus propose 16 examples of heuristic research designs and methods likely to complete the toolbox of health promotion researchers.