On the perils of invoking neoliberalism in public health critique

Bell, Kirsten; Green, John

doi:10.1080/09581596.2016.1144872

Cited by 107 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…There is, therefore, a need for further empirical research that explores the ways in which neoliberalising processes and discourses in health promotion are shaping day-to-day practices of providers (Bell & Green, 2016;Schrecker, 2016), particularly CVS providers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorising lifestyle drift in health promotion: explaining community and voluntary sector engagement practices in disadvantaged areas

Powell

Thurston²,

Bloyce

2017

Critical Public Health

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The past two decades have seen an increasing role for the UK community and voluntary sector (CVS) in health promotion in disadvantaged areas, largely based on assumptions on the part of funders that CVS providers are better able -toin services than statutory providers. However, there is limited empirical research exploring CVS provider practices in this field. Using ethnographic data this paper examines the experiences of a network of CVS providers seeking to engage residents in health promoting community services in a disadvantaged region in the North of England. The paper shows how CVS providers engaged in apparently contradictory practices, fluctuating between an empathically informed response to complex resident circumstances and (in the context of meeting externally set targets) behaviourist lifestyle approaches to health promotion. Drawing on concepts from figurational sociology, the paper explains how lifestyle drift occurs in health promotion as a result of the complex web of relations (with funders, commissioners and residents) in which CVS providers are embedded. Despite the fact that research has revealed the impact of targets on the work of the CVS before, this paper demonstrates more specifically the way in which monitoring processes within CVS contracts can draw providers into the neoliberal lifestyle discourse so prevalent in health promotion.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorising lifestyle drift in health promotion: explaining community and voluntary sector engagement practices in disadvantaged areas

Powell

Thurston²,

Bloyce

2017

Critical Public Health

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“…This is a provocative claim, and opens up intriguing possibilities for the study of public health as not only internally divided, but also defensive and often unsuccessful. In making this proposal, I feel close to Bell and Green's (2016) call for more 'nuance and specificity' in accounts of public health as responsibilisation within a broader set of processes of neoliberalisation. In my final section I will pick up this concern using some observations by Mol herself on the limits of the 'neoliberal critique,' as one which overlaps but is certainly not identical with a Foucauldian one, using discussions of 'good food' for animals and humans to illustrate the argument.…”

Section: Doubting and Lovingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As Bell and Green (2016) observe, the term 'neoliberal' may be used to describe governmental processes where the focus is on the creation of specific subjects, but also invokes privatisation, the expansion of global markets and the rolling back of the state. I have already discussed how Mol may draw different conclusions from those analyses of public health that see it as a form of governmentality.…”

Section: Doubting and Lovingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Will

2016

Critical Public Health

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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

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“…As with neoliberalism more generally, studies of the neoliberalism of health care have focused almost exclusively on the global North (Bell & Green, 2016;Pollock, 2005;Terris, 1999), and there has been an assumption that Australia merely follows the lead of the US, UK or Europe in developing and implementing health policies. However, the production of medical and scientific knowledge in Australia has a distinct history (Anderson, 2002;Bashford, 2004), as has the development and implementation of health policies (Boxall & Gillespie, 2013;Lewis, 2003).…”

Section: Neoliberalism and Health Carementioning

confidence: 99%

Conflicts of interest in neoliberal times: perspectives of Australian medical students

Mayes

Kerridge

Habibi

et al. 2016

Health Sociology Review

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In this paper we report on the findings from 6 focus groups conducted with Australian medical students. The focus groups discussed students' perceptions of conflicts of interest and the influence of commercial values in health care and medical education. Our research revealed that students were aware of a number of structural influences that affected the medical education they received and that had the potential to shape their attitudes and practices as they progressed in becoming a doctor. We found that the pressures of educational workload and anticipated career trajectories tended to have an individualising affect that limited the perceived possibility of collective action and response to structural influences. We interpreted these findings through the lens of neoliberal governmentality to articulate the way commercial interests are negotiated and normalised by medical students. Based on these findings, we suggest that medical education should not only explicitly alert students to effects of political and commercial influences on the health care system, but also encourage the collective agency of students and strategies that do not place unrealistic expectations on individuals to effect structural change.

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On the perils of invoking neoliberalism in public health critique

Cited by 107 publications

References 21 publications

Theorising lifestyle drift in health promotion: explaining community and voluntary sector engagement practices in disadvantaged areas

Theorising lifestyle drift in health promotion: explaining community and voluntary sector engagement practices in disadvantaged areas

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

Conflicts of interest in neoliberal times: perspectives of Australian medical students

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