ABSTRACT
The stock of health promotion texts and journals is growing rapidly as is the number of courses at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Health promotion is increasingly entering the discourse of a wide range of professional journals. With such evident and unprecedented growth in the knowledge base informing health promotion there is a need to assess and keep a perspective on the variety of contributions being made to the field of study. Health promotion is a multi-disciplinary endeavour. Different forms of expertise inform practice and research and are drawn upon to suit different purposes at different times, often with little conception of the appropriateness of overall disciplinary balance. This volume is an attempt to inject some critical awareness into the use of theory in health promotion research and practice. The contributions have been written to draw attention to the forms of knowledge currently contributing to health promotion. They illustrate their range and depth and give examples of how such theory either is being or could be drawn upon to promote health.
