From health behaviours to health practices: an introduction

Cohn, Simon

doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12140

Cited by 154 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The question of how to deliberately steer practices and bundles of practices requires further thought. As Cohn (2014) comments, defining exactly where one practice begins and another ends is a matter of analytic judgement, meaning that explanations of social action depend on correspondingly debatable attributions of causality. This is always so, but recognising this to be the case is theoretically and practically challenging.…”

Section: Implications For Public Health Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In calling for a theoretical reorientation within the field, and for an analytical and practical shift from health behaviours to health practices, Cohn (2014) highlights this paradox, arguing that structural or cultural approaches do not necessarily challenge the conceptual primacy of the individual and of his or her choices. In his words:…”

Section: Introduction: Behaviour Change Paradigms In Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although both approaches are well established and have been used to inform practical measures and programmes of intervention, in each case the potential for effecting change reaches its limits quite quickly: neither tradition has been exceptionally successful in dealing with the problems of disease that follow (Cohn, 2014;Kelly, 2010).…”

Section: Introduction: Behaviour Change Paradigms In Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Theories of practice and public health: understanding (un)healthy practices

Blue

Shove

Carmona

et al. 2014

Critical Public Health

391

358

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Psychological understandings and individualistic theories of human behaviour and behaviour change have dominated both academic research and interventions at the 'coalface' of public health. Meanwhile, efforts to understand persistent inequalities in health point to structural factors, but fail to show exactly how these translate into the daily lives (and hence health) of different sectors of the population. In this paper, we suggest that social theories of practice provide an alternative paradigm to both approaches, informing significantly new ways of conceptualising and responding to some of the most pressing contemporary challenges in public health. We introduce and discuss the relevance of such an approach with reference to tobacco smoking, focusing on the life course of smoking as a practice, rather than on the characteristics of individual smokers or on broad social determinants of health. This move forces us to consider the material and symbolic elements of which smoking is comprised, and to follow the ways in which these elements have changed over time. Some of these developments have to do with the relation between smoking and other practices such as drinking alcohol, relaxing and socialising. We suggest that intervening in the future of smoking depends, in part, on understanding the nature of these alliances, and how sets of practices co-evolve. We conclude by reflecting on the implications of taking social practices as the central focus of public health policy, commenting on the benefits of such a paradigmatic turn, and on the challenges that this presents for established methods, policies and programmes.

show abstract

Section: Implications For Public Health Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction: Behaviour Change Paradigms In Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction: Behaviour Change Paradigms In Public Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Theories of practice and public health: understanding (un)healthy practices

Blue

Shove

Carmona

et al. 2014

Critical Public Health

391

358

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As others have noted, this is actually a relatively common outcome for public health interventions (Lindsey 2010, Cohn 2014. Redfield (2016) notes that access to clean water in Zimbabwe is still a problem.…”

Section: Doubting and Lovingmentioning

confidence: 96%

On difference and doubt as tools for critical engagement with public health

Will

2016

Critical Public Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acknowledgements: I am grateful to Rebecca Lynch and Simon Cohn for the encouragement to write this paper, to Simon Carter and Judith Green for the initial invitation to present on the topic at the event celebrating 25 years of the journal, and to participants at that event, my colleague Alison Phipps, and two anonymous reviewers for very helpful comments on previous versions.Abstract: This paper argues that critical public health should reengage with public health as practice by drawing on versions of Science and Technology Studies (STS) that 'de-centre the human' and by seeking alternative forms of critique to work inspired by Foucault. Based on close reading of work by Annemarie Mol, John Law, Vicky Singleton and others, I demonstrate that these authors pursue a conversation with Foucault but suggest new approaches to studying contemporary public health work in different settings. Proposing that we 'doubt' both the unity of public health and its effects, I argue that this version of STS opens up a space to recognise multiplicity; to avoid idealising what is being criticised; and to celebrate or care for public health practices as part of critique. Finally I oppose the view that considering technologies, materials and microbes leads to micro-level analysis or political neutrality, and suggest that it allows us to reframe studies of public health to account for inequalities and to draw attention to weak or retreating states, active markets and the entangled relations of humans and non-humans across the world.2

show abstract

“…From this extended viewpoint, these very same activities that professionals may dismiss as hindering the rehabilitation process can become more relevant. We can even begin to understand them as a resource to engage someone who finds it difficult or is unwilling to make self-determined choices, since these everyday activities are not solely based on rational-decision making and develop out of situated actions and interactions (Cohn, 2014). Exploring with patients what they and their families already do and why it is important to them can hence offer a starting point for selfmanagement support.…”

Section: From Specific Behaviour Change To Situated Everyday Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Building Bridges between healthcare professionals, patients and families: A coproduced and integrated approach to self-management support in stroke

Jones

Pöstges

Brimicombe

2016

NRE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. BACKGROUND:Programmes providing self-management support for patients and families are gaining attention and have shown promising outcomes with regards to reducing long-term unmet needs post stroke. However, notions of what good selfmanagement support looks like can differ depending on professional opinion, individual preferences, skills and experiences of patients and their families as well as on how care and rehabilitation is organised in a particular healthcare setting. This resonates with the perspective of patient-centred care, according to which the meaning of good care is not universal, but rather jointly shaped between healthcare professionals and patients in everyday interactions. While self-management support is continuously co-produced in care and rehabilitation practices, most self-management programmes are typically provided as an 'add-on' to existing statutory care. OBJECTIVE: This paper aims to deepen the understanding of how self-management support can be made an integral part of everyday care and rehabilitation using Bridges methodology. METHODS:The authors provide a self-reflective account on 'Bridges' an integrated approach to self-management support, which is used by healthcare professionals within acute and community stroke rehabilitation across the UK, and in some parts of New Zealand and Australia. RESULTS: Bridges is based on self-efficacy principles, but has a central aim of professionals sharing decision-making and expertise with patients and families in every healthcare interaction. Methodologically, the co-production of a Bridges support package with local healthcare professionals and patients is critical. The authors present the values articulated by the support package and how it engages professionals, patients and Bridges training facilitators in a continuous process of adjusting and re-adjusting situated self-management support practices. CONCLUSIONS: Our reflections reveal the need to consider development and implementation of self-management support as one and the same on-going process, if we are to facilitate successful engagement and interest from healthcare professionals as well as their patients and families.

show abstract

From health behaviours to health practices: an introduction

Cited by 154 publications

References 8 publications

Theories of practice and public health: understanding (un)healthy practices

Theories of practice and public health: understanding (un)healthy practices

On difference and doubt as tools for critical engagement with public health

Building Bridges between healthcare professionals, patients and families: A coproduced and integrated approach to self-management support in stroke

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About