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This chapter analyses and discusses local government health promotion in Norway.

Institutional theory indicates that political and administrative jurisdictions are path dependent in their policy formation and implementation. By using data from different sources this assumption is analysed and discussed according to health promotion in Norwegian municipalities. The main methodology is cross tabulations, bivariate correlations and regression is carried out to supplement analyses.

Municipalities are path dependent in their health promotion policies. They acknowledge and prioritize health behaviour independent of experienced socio-economic challenges, municipal capacity as size and income, and local government political profile. Competence devoted to health promotion can create changes in policies.

The rhetoric on determinants and social determinants in particular is new in Norway. Rhetoric on, and interventions, that highlight the social determinants of health need to be coordinated.

The chapter presents new knowledge on Norwegian local government health promotion and how this is implemented in relation to the challenges experienced.

This chapter provides both an introduction to the volume and a brief review of literature on technology, communications, and health disparities.

Literature review.

The chapter argues for the importance of greater examination of technology, communications, and their linkages to health disparities and other related factors.

Reviews the topic of technology, communication, and health disparities and previews this book.

Urban transport plays a key role in reducing climate gas emissions. However, public policies are developed and implemented in an increasingly complex, fragmented, and multilevelled society. This chapter focuses on how interactive political leadership can address challenges related to spatial justice, network cooperation, and communication to increase legitimate and robust policies. Through in-depth case studies of the Norwegian urban regions of Trondheim and Nord-Jaeren, the importance of ensuring broad political alliances, handling spatial complexity, strong political leadership, as well as engaging in dialogue and communication with the public is shown. This may be more challenging to achieve in a complex institutional structure. We argue that governance structures reflect dynamics of the urban regions in which they are implemented. Related to our two empirical cases, the urban structure of Nord-Jaeren is more complex, compared to that of Trondheim, and likewise is their governance network. Linking the conditions of interactive political leadership to the three interconnected urban governance challenges, we see that contextual characteristics are important to explain differences in political leadership and public engagement.