Neoliberal bodies: ideology and obesity

Recent reconsideration of the history of 20th century obesity research suggests that the etiology1 of obesity has been fundamentally misunderstood or misrepresented (Gard & Wright, 2005; Guthman, 2011; Phinney & Volek, 2011; Taubes, 2002, 2007, 2011, 2016; Teicholz, 2014). The reasons for this are manifold and one is that 20th century obesity research is fraught with bias. There is a temporal overlap between the establishment of the modern theory of obesity and the entrenchment of neoliberalism in Western countries. I posit that the evidence of the influence of neoliberalism is discernible when considering both how the etiology of obesity has been [mis]understood and how the obese are characterized. Further, I argue that neoliberal policy and governance have contributed to increased levels of obesity. Through discourse analysis (Foucault, 1972) and institutional ethnography (Smith, 2005), I consider the ways in which neoliberalism and the social organization of scientific knowledge have influenced obesity science. I also identify how the resultant conceptualization of obesity that appears in Canadian public health reports reflects neoliberal ideological bias.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.) in Sociology

Grantor dc:publisher

Laurentian University of Sudbury

Year dc:date.issued

2020

Author dc:creator

• McFarland, Virginia

• Neoliberalism,
• ideology
• policy
• governance
• discourse analysis
• Foucault
• Smith

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://laurentian.scholaris.ca/handle/10219/3505

OAI record oai:identifier

https://laurentian.scholaris.ca/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Alaurentian.scholaris.ca%3A10219%2F3505