Operative links: The importance of combining perspectives in municipal strategies aimed at children's and adolescents' health

The article combines a public management perspective with a pedagogical perspective on health promotion. Our aim is to look into recent reforms in Denmark on health promotion in order to see how managerial ideas have been combined with welfare professional ideals concerning broad, positive and participatory health interventions. The Danish experience is particularly interesting as Denmark has witnessed quite extensive reforms during the last five years; a municipal reform and a health reform have both given priority to the local level. The municipalities have received increased political attention and have been the object of great expectations concerning the ability to incorporate health concerns into every welfare area through health promotion strategies. The paper draws on results and analyses of a collective research project funded by the Danish National Research Council and carried out by researchers from Copenhagen Business School and The Danish School of Education (1.9.2007 -31.12.2009). The data have been obtained in four separate empirical studies on the basis of a mixed qualitative design. The theoretical framework has three positions: first, a policy perspective on public organizations as networks: second, a semantic perspective on discourses and concepts of health, and, third, a health pedagogical perspective on participation, intervention, and roles. This paper argues for the importance of 'operative links' between different levels in health strategies. It is proposed that such links are supported by network structures, shared semantics and situated pedagogical means of intervention.