Health Promotion and the Personal Conduct of Everyday Life

Kasper A. KristensenResearch Centre for Health PromotionAssistant Professor, PhDRoskilde Universitykak@ruc.dkHealth Promotion and the Personal Conduct of (Everyday) LifeMain PointsThe Rising field of health promotion

Researching health and practices of health promotion in everyday life

Points of concernThe rising field of health promotionA historical surge in concepts and practices of health

Moral and political debatesCore institutionsWays of lifeForms of subejctivity

Put into practicePoliciesOrganizational changesHealth CarePrivate market of health goods and services

Intimate evaluation of self and othersIndividual strategies for healthHealth as a contested conceptThe greater good?Medicine, hygiene and social planning

Suspect?Power/KnowledgeInequality, exclusion and dominationGovernment/RegulationTechnological, rational and individualized reasoning

Battlefield of the bodies and of the selves

Absence of diseasehistorical influence of the medical science

Pathogenic perspective (Antonovsky)

Biomedicine (Rose)A positive health conceptThe good life, care for the self (philosophical/religious)

A complete state of well-being (UN, 1946)

Antonovsky: Salutogenesis

Life qualityA ressource for everyday lifeHealth:To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment. Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective for living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. (Ottawa Charter; WHO, 1986) Health Promotion:Health promotion is the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health.[] Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy life styles to well being (Ottawa Charter; WHO, 1986)

Practice and theory in health promotionField of Practice (McQueen)Policy Area

PragmaticBehavioral, cognitiveAdministrative, community

Field of Theory

Perspective/Orientation

MicroIndividual

MacroCommunity, national

Researching health and practices of health promotion in everyday lifeWhere the individual engages with the social worldDomain of subjective experience and activityThe domain of reproductive/productive life processesSocial cultural patterns of activitiesCtr: Health behaviorHealth HabitsLifestyleThe domain of the practitionerWhere practices are received and have an impactA place for critique/counteractivityPoints of concernThe question of perspective?The question of participation?The question of scale?The assumption of regularity?

The question of perspectivePrivileged observer?1st person perspectives

embodied experienceChronic pain

Capacity to reach individual goals (Wackerhausen, 1994)

The question of participationParticipation in social structures of practice (Dreier, 2009)

Ressource for everyday living:Manage social participationStressPsychosocial conflictsMental health

ParticipationResources, social rights, recognitionsThe question of scaleTime:24/7 timescaleThe social reproduction, social organization, ritualsGrowth and productionExperiences, activities over larger timescales- competencies- struggles- illness- recovery/rehabilitationSubjective horizon of significance

The question of scale IISpace:The place-/setting-/institutionboundLocal, immediate, context

MobilityDisability

Being in place/moving in and through placesMigrationPathways to marginalization

The assumption of regularityRoutineHabitTaken for granted

Projects!Life long learningCareerSuccess/failure

Health promotion:Making everyday life into a project!Sustaining change after the project

The personal conduct of lifeThe personal conduct of life (Holzkamp, 1998, Dreier, 2008, Kristensen, 2008)Building a theory and methodology that researches health and practices of health promotion in peoples lives from a1st person perspectiveParticipation in social structures of practicefollowing experiences and activities of growth and learning over time and spaceProjects, variations and conflicts in daily life

A worst case scenario?Expert privileged perspectiveLocally confined24/7 disciplineIndividualizedHabitual/Regularity