The Politics of Health Promotion: Case Studies from Denmark and England

This book examines the quest to promote the health and vigour of individuals and populations of liberal democracies. Inspired by Michel Foucault’s analytics of (bio-)power, it provides a critical account of the lack of moral limitations of the political interventions seeking to make citizens conduct themselves in a healthier fashion. 

Triantafillou and Vucina offer a detailed account of the emergence and working of Danish and English health promotion policies and programmes in the areas of obesity control and mental recovery. They argue that these interventions are supported by a form of optimistic vitalism, according to which targeted groups and citizens in general are encouraged to work indefinitely to improve their health and vigour. In contrast to curative approaches, which are primarily aimed at the ill, health promotion potentially targets everyone all of the time. Moreover, while preventative measures for the most part aim at creating a healthier physical environment, health promotion operates directly upon individuals with a view to augment and shape their self-steering capacities. In the areas of both obesity control and mental recovery the communities and social environments of individuals are the target of political interventions that seek to make these more facilitative of the vigorous life. Hence, the kind of health promotion at stake is a kind that combines targeting individual self-steering capacities and promoting a health-supporting environment. 

The politics of health promotion is relevant for social and political science researchers but also for policymakers and practitioners in the field of public health. The book does not provide solutions but encourages us to retain a sound critical attitude towards the quest for promoting people’s health.