Ontological foundations of urban health policy ideas: the case of planning Sydney’s Western Parkland City

Abstract

This case study examines the ontological backgrounds of urban health policy ideas in planning the Western Parkland City, a large-scale regional development project in Sydney, Australia. Using an empirical approach, the study identifies seven key urban health policy ideas and analyses the nature of these ideas using urban health ontological frameworks. The dominant ontological paradigms appear as the medical-industrial and urban health science paradigms with strong alignment with the sustainable urban development and healthy urban planning research traditions. Additionally, the dominant ideas adopt a view of systems that is complicated more than complex, favour change driven by structure rather than agency, and involve perspectives that transcend across multiple scales. These findings highlight the importance of recognising the influence of paradigms in shaping policies and the need for transdisciplinary approach to policymaking.