Successful Societies Program

How does the crime rate in a neighbourhood affect the prevalence of heart disease or diabetes in that area? Can an anti-discrimination campaign increase the average life span among local residents? Does good housing promote good health? These are a few of the questions that a small and diverse group of scholars are addressing through CIFAR’s Successful Societies program.

Of course, studying the relationships between environmental factors and the health of a community involves far more complex questions. In fact, the broadness of interrelated factors affecting societal health explains why CIFAR brought together such an unusually diverse group of researchers to participate in Successful Societies.

This program grew out of two earlier CIFAR programs, Population Health and Human Development. Studies in these programs found that overall health varied from province to province, state to state, country to country, one First Nations community to another, and even from one city district to the next. Social inequities could account for some of these differences, but clearly, many other factors help determine why one society is more successful than another.

Successful Societies, by pursuing a better understanding of the determinants of societal success, holds the potential to impact public policy and revolutionize the way we approach issues of individual and community success.