Session 11. 4.

This sociological research examines how public health frameworks shape urban commons through Bagnoli's waterfront study (Naples, Italy). Once Balneolae, a thermal destination renowned since antiquity, then an industrial site, now a Site of National Interest (SIN) due to contamination, it typifies how public health drives urban commons transformations. The site's cruciality stems from its designation as National Priority Contaminated Site after Italsider’s shutdown. While institutional fragmentation blocks environmental regeneration, the area faces new public healt risks due to rising nightclubs’ nuclei. This study systematizes literature on night-time economy (Hobbs et al,2000) and new-commons (Hess,2008) in a postindustrial scenario, exploring tensions between commodification and de-commodification of public space via public health. The methodology combines secondary source analysis, field observation, and semi-structured interviews using MyMaps for digital mapping, Epicollect5 for field data collection, and MAXQDA for interview analysis. The results revealed critical issues related to noise pollution, mobility and public space accessibility. Observations documented systematic violations of the noise limit prescribed by medical literature, WHO and the European Environmental Agency; Emergency assets also experienced delayed response times in loisir districts. This study identifies emerging forms of resistance through two urban commons recognized by Naples Municipality Villa Medusa and Lido Pola, representing alternatives to commercial waterfront use, directly opposing privatization via practices of solidarity. Villa Medusa spawned the Popular Observatory on Remediation of Bagnoli-Coroglio SIN, which professionalizes community struggle while providing a tool for democracy through environmental health knowledge's commoning. This initiative is accompanied by informal “Metal Beach” practices where citizens consciously reclaim the polluted Coroglio shore, using the evocative name as symbolic resistance demonstrating how communities negotiate health risks while asserting their right to the city. This case contributes to debate on postindustrial waterfront regeneration, posing insights for policy makers and activists. It emphasizes how public health challenges require more inclusive and participatory approaches in urban planning that consider both legacy contamination and emerging health threats, pursue a dynamic balance between economic opportunities and spatial justice. Keywords: Waterfront, Night-time economy, New-commons, Right to the City, Public Health

In July 2024 the urban commons of Làbas released an instagram post which defined the space a "climate shelter"; climate shelters are spaces designed to protect people from extreme weather phenomena, namely urban heatwaves, during the warm season. The space, in fact, now offers publicly accessible shaded spaces and, above all, free showers to vulnerable people. A few months later, in early October 2024, an article by the Italian newspaper "La Repubblica" was dedicated to another major urban commons of Bologna, TPO, which had installed monitoring devices to measure particulate matter pollution in the air. Research on the commons has for a long time focused on natural commons; at the beginning of the XXI century, a new emphasis was placed on the urban dimension as a political arena for the right to the city. Today, the climate crisis is severely impacting human health and the well-being of urban and rural environments; the urban commons are, therefore, redesigning their function and scope to also feature green infrastructures and nature-based solutions for climate resilience. This bridges the unnatural gap created in commons theory between the natural and the urban: starting from case studies which display innovative actions to safeguard the health of vulnerable people, the paper will problematize commons conceptualization and the related taxonomies, highlighting the role of the commons in fostering climate resilience in urban environments. The Italian context provides an ideal backdrop to explore tensions in different approaches, both institutional and grassroots ones, as Italy is a country that is extremely vulnerable to the impact of climate change; furthermore, it presents a high level of urban sprawl, making it necessary to devise new solutions to the planning and management of spaces, at the interface between urban and rural dimensions, able to safeguard human health against the climate crisis.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant changes in the urban commons. It has, in effect, forced an evolution in public spaces and altered how and in what manner communal behaviors are expressed. This study looks at the intersection of public health and urban spatial practices, with an emphasis on the understanding and compliance of undergraduates from Rivers State, Nigeria, with the specific public health mandate of hand hygiene. Hand hygiene has emerged as a primary strategy in mitigating the transmission of infectious diseases, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, where person-to-person contact facilitates viral spread. This study examines the impact of the pandemic on hand hygiene awareness and practices among undergraduates in Rivers State, Nigeria, within the broader context of public health and the management of urban commons. The pandemic has underscored the importance of basic hygiene practices, including regular handwashing, minimizing hand contact with the face, and practicing proper sneezing etiquette, raising questions about its potential lasting effects on public health behaviors. To achieve the aim of the study three research questions as well as three hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The research questions and hypotheses were answered and tested, respectively. A total of 446 youths were sampled from the study population of youths aged 18 – 29 years from 2 tertiary institutions in Rivers State. Data was collected using a self-administered structured questionnaire. Results showed significant differences in respondents’ level of awareness (p ≤ 0.05) and adherence to hand hygiene (p ≤ 0.05) due to COVID-19, with both sexes being statistically at par in their level of awareness, while male undergraduates showed significantly lower levels of adherence than females. These findings are congruent with the key informants’ feedback. The study concludes that the COVID-19 pandemic catalyzed a resurgence in personal hygiene practices. It recommends the institutionalization of periodic hygiene awareness campaigns in educational settings to sustain these practices and strengthen public health resilience in urban spaces.
Keywords: Public Health, COVID-19 Pandemic, Hygiene Awareness, Urban Commons, Hand Hygiene

The delivery of primary health care in Nigeria's rural and underserved communities largely depends on local Nigerian health institutions. Yet, their effectiveness and the quality of care they provide is under threat from a number of systemic and access-related problems. Some recent progress has been made, but it has largely been at the state level; local health institutions are still largely underfunded and are faced with a number of human and capital infrastructure challenges. With these local institutions largely under state control, and under threat from both resource and access problems, how can Nigeria expect to make progress toward either the SDGs or UHC? The paper assesses programs that promise to expand access to healthcare, including mobile health clinics, community health workers, and telemedicine. However, the paper points out uneven implementation across different regions and significant logistical challenges to all three programs. The paper also mentions sustained funding as a problem. They do see potential in telemedicine but emphasize integrating it with the two other programs mentioned above. Overall, the article does a good job of pointing out the pay-off in potential lives saved if some combination of these programs can reach people who need healthcare but can’t get to it. The paper highlights the existing problems in Nigeria's primary healthcare system can only be "overcome by a concerted, coordinated approach to investing in our communities—with the government, local communities, and the private sector all playing their parts." They call for "strategic, targeted investment" in three main areas: healthcare infrastructure, human resources (especially healthcare workers), and policies that "remove barriers to accessibility and address the quality of care provided. The paper urges an immediate reconsideration of Nigeria's strategy for the health sector. It demands that attention be focused on the local health institutions that are pivotal to the UHC vision. If these institutions are to have any chance of carrying out the mandate effectively, they need resource, training, and infrastructural gaps to be addressed. These health institutions can and should be empowered to tilt the balance toward an UHC that delivers quantity and quality of service equity across the country's vast regional distance.

Keywords: Primary Healthcare, Local Health Institutions, Universal Health Coverage, Healthcare Reform, Community Health

Background: With the increasing complexity of global health challenges, the construction of an efficient, equitable and sustainable medical and health-care service system is a major issue facing the countries of the South. Through years of medical and health system reform, China has successfully built an integrated medical and health service system centred on people's health and covering both urban and rural areas. By applying the theory of Common Pool Resources (CPRs), streamlining the mechanisms between horizontal and vertical sectors, and vertically constructing a more integrated healthcare service system, China has demonstrated significant advantages in resolving vertical conflicts at the provincial, county and township levels, as well as in integrating horizontal resources for prevention, screening, diagnosis and treatment.
Results: The research took 3 years to visit the Health and Health Bureau of Xiaoshan District, Lin'an District and Yuhang District of Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province, and comprehensively understood the face-to-face advancement of 5 MEDCs in Xiaoshan District, 4 MEDCs in Yuhang District, and 4 MEDCs in Lin'an District, and interviewed 5 cadres of the District Health and Health Bureau in the organs of 12 medical institutions of the second level or higher and 8 community health service centres, 3 main leaders of the lead hospitals, and 10 basic-level medical institutions, 10 heads of relevant business departments, 10 patients and their families for on-site follow-up, and exchanges by reviewing policy documents, observing business operation platforms, and communicating by phone. It was found that the government was able to effectively promote the reverse flow of resources in its decision-making through public resource governance behaviours at the three levels of section level, horizontal collaboration and bottom-up interaction.
Conclusions: Three ‘parallel’ mechanisms for filling the global health governance gap from a global South perspective, namely, ‘vulnerability’, ‘localisation’ and ‘quasi-market’, can play an important role in addressing the unequal distribution of public resources. ‘can play an important role in addressing the unequal distribution of public resources. By breaking down the barriers between the government, government-market and government-establishment, the administration can unclog the platform for the flow of public resources. In practice, the sinking of medical service resources to narrow the inequality of medical resources, the stimulation of medical insurance and medicine linkage to enhance the efficiency