No abstract

Women with migration experience from non-European countries living in Norway question the degree to which workfare is beneficial to their participation in working life. Welfare-workers regard 'immigrant women' as a particularly difficult group to assist with their transition into employment. Based on ethnographic observation of more than fifty meetings, interviews, and other qualitative sources, this paper explores one specific reason why these processes seldom succeed. Diffuse pain dominates the lives of many women, a situation not fully understood nor accommodated medically, socially or in terms of welfare rights. The welfare system fails, by and large, to offer solutions that address real-life challenges. A better understanding of pain in its communicative aspect is necessary to promote the participation of women -and particularly those with migration experience -in workfare. The paper's point of departure is a pivotal moment in the jobseeker Amina's workfare process. A case study is developed to show how pain can make women feel obliged to act according to a certain 'script' to be able to negotiate welfare outcomes. Pain is a major hindrance to working life and it is important to understand more about this in the welfare context.

In contemporary obesity discourse, physical activity is routinely portrayed as essential regarding weight regulation. This axiom tends to neglect that health-enhancing exercise may involve categorically different sets of corporeal experiences for obese individuals than for people of other weight categories. Rather, obese people are seen as fundamentally lazy-the moral aspects of this have long been debated. Less attention has been paid to how Western cultural signs and symbols are 'inadequate' to distinguish how obese bodies are variously adapted to execute given bodily movement. This article is based on a case-study of a Norwegian paediatric obesity patient, and uncovers how she has to accommodate her bodily structure when being exertive. It is argued that embodying a particular 'configuration' of an obese body makes movement burdensome, which is a situation made worse by the fact that available 'symbolic representations' fail to do this bodily reality justice. The discussion thus focuses on the interplay of somatic and semiotic issues-how phenomenological, corporeal concerns and socio-cultural mechanisms combine to make obesity a veritable double burden for some individuals. This has very real implications in terms of participation in physical activity, and the debate might therefore offer useful insights to those who in some capacity encourage large adolescents to exercise.

I vestlig diskurs, er god helse blitt individets egen moralske plikt. Ettersom overvekt må stamme enten fra uvitenhet eller manglende viljestyrke, kan det sies at fedme peker til motsatsen til Det moralske individ. Anlegger man et sådan moralsk perspektiv vil man imidlertid stå i fare for å misforstå hva massive kropper kan bety for den enkelte, ettersom viljestyrke ikke nødvendigvis er i kjernen av egen forståelse av det å være stor. Basert på casestudie av en ung, norsk overvektspasient, ”Ulrik” – undersøker denne artikkelen hvordan en selverklært ”tjukkas” forholder seg til samfunnets forståelse av hans type kropp. Skjønt han aldri kan frigi seg fullstendig fra tanken om at ”fett er farlig”, innebærer for Ulrik det å være stor samtidig det å være fysisk sterk. Det å fremstå som ”tøff” er med andre ord til hindring for hans genuine deltagelse i vervektsbehandlingen og kompliserer mulighetene for vekttap gjennom livsstilsendring. Man bør innen overvektproblematikk, streve etter å forstå enkeltindividet. Debatten er først og fremst myntet på fagfolk opptatt av hvordan konseptet helse gjennom rett livsførsel gjør seg gjeldende i moderne samfunn.