Biopolitics and the 'Obesity Epidemic'

Wright, Jan; Harwood, Valerie

doi:10.4324/9780203882061

Cited by 144 publications

(214 citation statements)

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“…As argued by Crawford (1998, p. 84), healthism engenders a 'blaming the victim' discourse, which intimates that '[if] individuals take appropriate actions, if they … adopt life-styles which avoid unhealthy behaviour, may prevent most diseases'. Of particular significance to the present study, healthism pays little to no attention to the impact of social structure, life circumstances and life contingencies, which shape the dispositions and offer opportunities for engaging in health practices (Crawford, 1998;Wright and Harwood, 2009).…”

Section: Women Lifestyle and Obesity A Critical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifestyle as a choice of necessity: Young women, health and obesity

2013

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Sociologists of health have regularly called into question strictly knowledge-based health promotion approaches that focus on individual lifestyle change, claiming preference for collective actions on social determinants of health. These critiques have more recently been directed towards the issue of obesity. Although there is a growing body of work that shows the connection between poverty, obesity and ill health, few studies have focused on the concerns for health and lifestyle of vulnerable populations. In this qualitative study, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted with young underprivileged women in order to capture their dispositions towards health practices by outlining sociocultural factors that do (or do not) incline them to pursue a health regimen and weight control strategies. By drawing on Pierre Bourdieu's concepts of habitus, practical sense and 'choice of the necessary', the results suggest that inclinations to follow normative health guidelines are strongly influenced by family and financial responsibilities and by pressing health concerns rather than a calculation of how the prescribed risk avoidance behaviours will improve personal health and/or prevent illness for one's own sake. In conclusion, this study highlights the limits of prescribed 'solutions' to health improvement that have little to no consideration of embodied social knowledge and lived experiences.

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Section: Women Lifestyle and Obesity A Critical Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lifestyle as a choice of necessity: Young women, health and obesity

2013

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“…The moral panic surrounding childhood obesity demonstrates with particular clarity how multifactorial and systemic problems may be reduced to biological arguments for inferiority, as the authoritative claims of 'regulatory science' (Jasonoff 1995;Winnicoff 2013) pinpoint various degenerative bodily processes. In this era of complex, layered governance (Rose 1999; Winnicoff 2013), regulatory science formulates 'evidence' into politically useful forms, disseminated by courts and state actors such as child protection officers and social workers; it favours a subtly authoritarian (Brown and Baker 2012;Gard and Wright 2005;Wright 2008) consensus on issues of social concern, which percolates into 'common sense' through media exposure. The debate on infant feeding (Wolf 2007;Hausman 2003) references similar fears of perinatal malnutrition and 'lazy' mothering styles, with mass failure to breastfeed supposedly creating a population with lowered intelligence and disease resistance, and higher body weight over life.…”

Section: Risk Genetics and National (Un)fitnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘This growing genetic disaster’: obesogenic mothers, the obesity ‘epidemic’ and the persistence of eugenics

Cain¹

2013

Studies in the Maternal

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“…However, as social and economic conditions worsen the burden of treating chronic disease on national health expenditure increases exponentially [49]. Unable to afford healthy lifestyle options Māori are frequently subjected to negative stereotypes and deficit explanations that unfairly direct fault at Māori for being obese, unhealthy, and sedentary along with accusations that they make poor lifestyle choices [48,50]. Accusations such as these ignore genetic, contemporary socio-cultural and environmental factors that contribute to their unhealthy lifestyle.…”

Section: Cultures Apartmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racial Inequities in Cardiovascular Disease in New Zealand

Miner-Williams¹

2017

Divers Equal Health Care

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The literature is replete with studies pertaining to ethnic inequities in healthcare. A thorny subject that has been described for decades and yet has few remedial solutions. The pattern of ethnic inequities in healthcare is a global phenomenon that is not confined to any specific race or culture. Worldwide, cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the topmost cause of death and a substantial burden on healthcare resources. In New Zealand CVD is the leading cause of death, accounting for 40% of all deaths annually. Diminished life expectancy is one example of racial inequity in healthcare between Māori and Pākehā (the non-indigenous population). This review attempts to clarify the muddy waters of 175 years of post-colonial healthcare inequity in New Zealand and in particular the causes of inequity in the incidence of CVD and mortality in Māori. Such dialogue will hopefully stimulate discussion among policy makers and clinicians to redress the ethnic inequities in healthcare.

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Biopolitics and the 'Obesity Epidemic'

Cited by 144 publications

References 0 publications

Lifestyle as a choice of necessity: Young women, health and obesity

Lifestyle as a choice of necessity: Young women, health and obesity

‘This growing genetic disaster’: obesogenic mothers, the obesity ‘epidemic’ and the persistence of eugenics

Racial Inequities in Cardiovascular Disease in New Zealand

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