Biopolitics and the "Obesity Epidemic": Governing Bodies

The editors (both professors of education at the U. of Wollongong, Australia) present 14 papers exploring the "biopedagogies" of discourse on obesity, drawing the word "biopedagogies" out of Foucault's concept of "biopower," the governance and regulation of individuals and populations through practices associated with the body, and using it to "describe the normalizing and regulating practices in schools and disseminated more widely through the web and other forms of media, which have been generated by escalating concerns over claims of global `obesity epidemic'" Chapters discuss how the medicalization of weight has become a component of public health discourses of individual responsibility, morality, and the distinction between the normal and the pathological. They also discuss how the discourses of the obesity epidemic are translated into specific practice and standards that help to pathologize marginalized populations. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Valerie Harwood is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong. Her recently published book Diagnosing ‘Disorderly’ Children (2006, Routledge) came runner-up in the prestigious National Association of Special Needs in Education/Times Educational Supplement Academic Book Award, 2006.

Jan Wright is Professor of Education and Associate Dean (Research) in the Faculty of Education at the University of Wollongong. She is co-editor of Body Knowledge and Control and Critical Inquiry and Problem Solving in Physical Education (Routledge 2004) and co-author with Michael Gard of The Obesity Epidemic: Science, Ideology and Morality (Routledge, 2005).