Synopsis
Achieving good health is one of the major concerns of contemporary societies. Everyone is now called upon to play their part in creating a 'healthier' and more 'ecologically sustainable' environment through attention to lifestyle and involvement in collective efforts to manage risk. These strategies are the mainstay of the so-called 'new public health'.
Petersen and Lupton focus critically on the new public health, assessing its implications for the concepts of self, embodiment and citizenship. They argue that the new public health is used as a source of moral regulation and for distinguishing between self and other. They also explore the implications of the modernist belief in the power of science and the ability of experts to solve problems through the rational administrative means that underpin the strategies and rhetoric of the new public health.
Alan Petersen is Senior Lecturer in Sociology in the School of Social Sciences at Murdoch University, and is author of In a Critical Condition and co-editor of Foucault, Health and Medicine. Deborah Lupton is Associate Professor in Cultural Studies and Cultural Policy at Charles Sturt University, Mitchell and author of six books on the social aspects of medicine, public health and the body.
'In a stimulating and intellectually provocative analysis of public health strategies and practices, Petersen and Lupton offer a new perspective on health and civil society which they approach through an analysis of public health as a moral enterprise, the politics of citizenship participation, and the new discourse of risk with respect to environmental hazard and pollution. The result is a wholly original sociology of public health which will provide a benchmark for debate within this field.' Bryan S Turner, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Deakin University
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Alan Petersen lectures in the School of Social Sciences at Murdoch University, Perth. Deborah Lupton is Associate Professor in Cultural Studies and Cultural Policy at Charles Sturt University, Mitchell.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
