'Gluttony or sloth': critical geographies of bodies and morality in (anti)obesity policy

Evans, B.

Abstract

In many countries, obesity is high on public health policy agendas, and geographical research has begun to engage with obesity. However, obesity is a highly contested term, and recent debates about geographers' engagement with policy, and critical discussions of the presence of bodies in medical geography, bear great relevance for developing a critical perspective on dominant 'obesity discourse'. Through a critical reading of a recent UK policy document, this paper considers the presence of bodies in (anti)obesity campaigns, calling for a more critical approach to the medicalization of body size to be central to future geographical work on obesity.

Citation

Evans, B. (2006). 'Gluttony or sloth': critical geographies of bodies and morality in (anti)obesity policy. Area, 38(3), 259-267. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2006.00692.x

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2006
• Deposit Date: Mar 24, 2010
• Journal: Area
• Print ISSN: 0004-0894
• Electronic ISSN: 1475-4762
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 38
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 259-267
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2006.00692.x
• Keywords: United Kingdom, Critical geography, Obesity, Policy, Bodies, Medical geography.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1545391