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Date: Friday 25 November 2011
Time: 10h00 - 11h00
Venue: CSIR Pretoria Campus, Building 33, Kingfisher Boardroom
Guest speaker: Prof Brendon Barnes
Overview
Theory plays a critical role in how interventions are conceptualised and implemented. Scientists and
practitioners have a range of theoretical influences to assist them with planning the content of
interventions and deciding on what level(s) interventions are pitched. Despite this, the role of theory
has been poorly discussed in the environmental health literature in developing countries. This
presentation reviews the role of theory in environmental health intervention studies published
between 2000-2010. Reviewed studies included, but were not limited to, water, sanitation and
hygiene; malaria control and indoor air pollution. It is argued that while evidence of formal health
promotion theory is limited, this does not mean that interventions are necessarily a-theoretical. The
presentation, therefore, also focuses on some of the underlying assumptions of interventions that
may be important to consider when designing environmental health interventions in developing
countries.
Prof Barnes
Brendon Barnes is an Associate Professor in the School of Human and Community development at
the University of the Witwatersrand. He is also an honorary fellow at London South Bank University
(UK). He has a Masters degree (Psychology) (Natal) and a PhD (Public Health) (Wits). His research
interests are in environmental health promotion in developing countries as well as social research
methodology. Barnes has won a number of research awards and has published widely in
international and local journals. He has supervised students at the PhD, Masters and Honours level.
RSVP – please RSVP to Caradee Wright cwright@csir.co.za before 15 November 2011.
The first virtual workshop of the EHRN was held in August 2009, where the need for a central networking website was identified. The next step will be to identify and start working on future priority research needs to address environmental health challenges facing South Africa.
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