Local Experiences in Community Health: Examples from Canada, Brazil and Mali, and an Experiment in France

This paper presents the findings of international research with an original approach anchored in health geography, which illustrates the importance of place as a dimension in community health. The aim of the research is to identify the success factors in the processes used to build community health initiatives at the local level. The study is based on interviews encoded and analysed using the framework of the grounded theory. Three main themes—the place, the community and healthcare supply—and two cross-cutting issues referring to 18 explanatory dimensions are identified. These findings are then put to the test in France through an action research approach. Overall, the work suggest avenues to enable the transferability of successful elements of community health initiatives.