title: Public health within the EU policy space: a qualitative study of Organized Civil Society (OCS) and the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This article reviews how Organized Civil Society (OCS) groups in the field of public health work across the boundaries between European institutions and policy areas. In particular, it explores 1) how the Health in All Policies (HiAP) approach is conducted by these groups informally within the formal governance structures, and 2) how this advocacy work creates space for public health within the broader political determinants of health.
  
  
  METHODS
  A qualitative mixed-methods framework.
  
  
  METHODS
  Political ethnography, including 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with EU health strategy stakeholders and participant observations in public health events (n = 22) in Brussels over a three-year period (2012-2015), as well as four interviews with EU Member State representatives. Three additional semi-structured interviews were conducted with World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe staff members who had been involved in the drafting of the Health 2020 framework and strategy and the accompanying main implementation pillar, European Action Plan for Strengthening Public Health Capacities and Services (EAP-PHS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings provide an insight into OCS work in the field of European public health, offering an account of the experiences of HiAP work conducted by the research participants. The OCS groups perceive themselves as communicators between policy areas within European institutions and between local and supranational levels.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The structures and political determinants of health that impose limitations on a public institution can at points be transcended by stakeholders, who conduct HiAP work at supranational level, thus negotiating space for public health within the competitive, globalized policy space.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Public Policy and Health, School of Medicine, Pharmacy and Health, Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing, Durham University Queen's Campus, Stockton-on-Tees TS17 6BH, United Kingdom. Electronic address: paula.franklin@durham.ac.uk.
authors.forename: P K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Franklin
mesh_terms: D005062:European Union; D006291:Health Policy; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012952:Societies
keywords: European Commission; Health in All Policies (HiAP); Multilevel governance; Organized Civil Society (OCS); Public health politics; World Health Organization Europe