ABSTRACT
The physical environment is widely recognized as an important determinant of health and health inequalities. There is a sizeable literature on the positive health effects of access to green space, as well as the negative health effects of waste facilities, brownfield or contaminated land, as well as air pollution. Health geographers have traditionally explained the health divides in terms of the effects of compositional and contextual factors. The chapter examines the relational approach as well as the political economy approach. The contextual and compositional explanations for how place relates to health are not mutually exclusive, and to separate them is an oversimplification that ignores the interactions between these two levels. The compositional view argues that who lives here–primarily the health behaviors and socioeconomic characteristics of the people living within a particular area determine its health outcomes: that poor people result in poor places.
