# Critical Reflections on Public Health, Policy and Social Change Toward Healthy Societies: Comment on "How to Build Healthy Societies: A Thematic Analysis of Relevant Conceptual Frameworks"

## TL;DR

This commentary highlights missing perspectives in public health frameworks for building healthy societies, focusing on well-being, democratic governance, and community and policy arenas.

## Contribution

The paper introduces new perspectives on well-being, democratic state roles, and distinct arenas for social change in public health.

## Key findings

- Current frameworks lack a comprehensive view of well-being.
- The democratic state's role in health is underemphasized.
- Community and policy arenas are distinct but interconnected for social change.

## Abstract

Nambiar and colleagues in this journal identify the main conceptual frameworks offered by public health on how to build healthy societies, drawn from key documents published over a span of 50 years. In their analysis they point to strengths and limitations of these frameworks and offer suggestions for their improvement. In this commentary, I argue that both the frameworks on offer and Nambiar and colleagues’ critique are missing important perspectives on well-being itself, on the role of the democratic State, and on the "community arena" and the "policy arena" as two related but distinct arenas for political and social change toward healthy societies.