The Biopolitics of Lifestyle: Foucault, Ethics and Healthy Choices
- ISBN-10
- 0815377398
- ISBN-13
- 9780815377399
- Category
- Biopolitics
- Pages
- 156
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2017-10-26
- Publisher
- Interventions
- Author
- Christopher Mayes
Description
A growing sense of urgency over obesity at the national and international level has led to a proliferation of medical and non-medical interventions into the daily lives of individuals and populations. This work focuses on the biopolitical use of lifestyle to govern individual choice and secure population health from the threat of obesity. The characterization of obesity as a threat to society caused by the cumulative effect of individual lifestyles has led to the politicization of daily choices, habits and practices as potential threats. This book critically examines these unquestioned assumptions about obesity and lifestyle, and their relation to wider debates surrounding neoliberal governmentality, biopolitical regulation of populations, discipline of bodies, and the possibility of community resistance. The rationale for this book follows Michel Foucault�s approach of problematization, addressing the way lifestyle is problematized as a biopolitical domain in neoliberal societies. Mayes argues that in response to the threat of obesity, lifestyle has emerged as a network of disparate knowledges, relations and practices through which individuals are governed toward the security of the population�s health. Although a central focus is government health campaigns, this volume demonstrates that the network of lifestyle emanates from a variety of overlapping domains and disciplines, including public health, clinical medicine, media, entertainment, school programs, advertising, sociology and ethics. This book offers a timely critique of the continued interventions into the lives of individuals and communities by government agencies, private industries, medical and non-medical experts in the name of health and population security and will be of interests to students and scholars of critical international relations theory, health and bioethics and governmentality studies.
Get the book
Other editions
-
- 2015-12-22
- 168 pages
- Ebook
- Routledge
-
- 2015-12-22
- 156 pages
- Ebook
- Routledge
Similar books
-
The Biopolitics of Water: Governance, Scarcity and Populations
By Sofie HellbergThis volume provides a biopolitical perspective on water governance and its effects.
-
Disziplinen des Lebens: zwischen Anthropologie, Literatur und Politik
By Ulrich Bröckling... like wolves and dogs , a sort of wolf - ape . “ 23 Kooperatives Verhalten zeige der Mensch nur als Mittel zum Zweck der Jagd , die , erfolgreich abgeschlossen , sogleich wieder in einen aggressiven Kampf um die Beute münde .
-
Zoetropes and the Politics of Humanhood
By Allison L. Rowland"A rhetorical analysis that builds on necropolitical theory to critique the discursive practices of inclusion into humanhood.
-
Biopolitical Governance: Race, Gender and Economy
By Hannah RichterThis collection brings together contributions from both established scholars and researchers working at the forefront of biopolitical theory, gendered and sexualised governance and the politics of race and migration.
-
The Routledge Handbook of Biopolitics
By Sergei Prozorov, Simona RenteaThe problematic of biopolitics has become increasingly important in the social sciences.
-
Imperio vs. multitud: el problema de la biopolítica y la formación
By Germán Vargas GuillénImperio vs. multitud: el problema de la biopolítica y la formación
-
Redesigning Life: Eugenics, Biopolitics, and the Challenge of the Techno-human Condition
By Nathan Van CampThis book brings together a philosophical analysis of life, politics, and technology with a biopolitical critique of the way genetic enhancement technologies have been dealt with in liberal moral and political philosophy.
-
Humanism in Ruins: Entangled Legacies of the Greek-Turkish Population Exchange
By Aslı IğsızBy way of an introduction : the entangled legacies of a population exchange -- part I. Humanism and its discontents : biopolitics, politics of expertise, and the human family.
-
Human, All Too (post)human: The Humanities After Humanism
By Jennifer CotterHuman, All Too (Post)Human: The Humanities after Humanism argues that the Nietzschean tendencies that provide the philosophical boundaries of post-humanism do not undo humanism but reform it, constructing a parallel discourse that saves ...
-
Where Elk Roam: Conservation and Biopolitics of Our National Elk Herd
By Bruce L. SmithAs entertaining as it is educating, this book brings to life the joys and rewards of working not only with elk but also a host of other remarkable species--including wolves, bears, and mountain lions.