Cruel optimism? Socially critical perspectives on the obesity assemblage

Socially critical scholars in Health and Physical Education (HPE) have been raising questions about the ethical, moral and social consequences of charging schools with the burden of ameliorating an ‘obesity’ problem for years, yet there is little sign of any substantial shift in the thinking that drives obesity strategies and policies in and around schools. Drawing on exemplars from our own and others’ practice, we interrogate the extent to which socially critical obesity work, and post-structural work, in particular, can contribute to new understandings of the ‘obesity assemblage’. Can our own repetitive aspirations to disrupt dominant discourses be regarded as yet another exemplar of ‘cruel optimism’ or can a flourishing body of critical enquiry actually do something both for young people in the context of health and physical education and for cultural understandings more widely

Critical health education studies: Reflections on a new conference and this themed symposium

In May 2018, a group of scholars gathered in the icy and sunlit grandeur of Queenstown (Aotearoa New Zealand) to talk, debate and share ideas about health education. The conference aimed to trouble and disrupt traditional kinds of health education and, instead, suggest possibilities for the critical study of health education – both in terms of theory and practice. This introduction to the special themed symposium is a reflection by the six authors on that new conference – Critical Studies in Health Education (CHESS) – and what it aimed to achieve. The authors discuss and define the intent of critical approaches to health education, and reflect on their experiences of the conference, as well as the future of the field. Papers in this special themed symposium of Health Education Journal are also introduced.Katie Fitzpatrick acknowledges the support of Te Aparangi The Royal Society of New Zealand for its support via a Rutherford Discovery Fellowship

Assembling a health [y] subject

\u27Assembling a health [y] subject\u27 offers an analysis of the governmental hopes and practices of Health Education. The thesis illustrates that Health Education assemblages are dominated by neo-liberalism and risk. It then addresses the problematic implications that this has for how young people come to understand health

Moving beyond body image: A socio-critical approach to teaching about health and body size

Concerns about young people\u27s (read, young women\u27s) body dissatisfaction in schools have resulted in the introduction of programs promoting positive body Image in an effort to reduce eating disorders. These programs, informed by psychological or socio-psychological notions of the relations between self and bodies, seem to have considerable credibility in schools and in the academic Iiterature because of their authoritative underpinnings. In this chapter, we want to examine the ways in which such programs engage with discourses around bodies, fat, and size. For example, do they challenge discourses of weight-based oppression, create safe spaces for learning about weight and size, and/or (re)produce normative notions of individual responsibility and health

Governing food choices: a critical analysis of school food pedagogies and young people\u27s responses in contemporary times

Recently a proliferation and intensification of school programmes that are directed towards teaching children and young people about food has been witnessed. Whilst there is much to learn about food, anxieties concerning the obesity epidemic have dramatically shaped how schools address the topic. This article draws on governmentality to consider \u27the conditions of possibility\u27 for teaching about food in contemporary times. In particular the form that knowledge about food takes in the midst of an obesity epidemic, the authorities on which it draws for its legitimacy and the learnings made possible are considered. To do this two Australian studies investigating students\u27 engagement with school-health knowledge are considered. It is suggested that the obesity epidemic has potently shaped the ways schools seek to teach about food and the possibilities for how young people come to understand their own, and others\u27, food choices

Disgusting pedagogies

Biopolitics and the \u27Obesity Epidemic\u27 is the first edited collection of critical perspectives on the \u27obesity epidemic.\u27 The volume provides a comprehensive discussion of current issues in the critical analysis of health, obesity and society, and the impact of obesity discourses on different individuals, social groups and institutions. Contributors from the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia provide original, accessible, and engaging chapters on issues such as the effects on individuals, families, youths and schools. The timely contributions offered by Biopolitics and the \u27Obesity Epidemic\u27 to this highly topical area will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including teachers, education professionals, community health and allied professionals, and academics in areas such as education, health, youth studies, social work and psychology