Resisting 'reason'. A Comparative Anthropological Study of Social Differences and Resistance Toward Health Promotion and Illness Prevention In Denmark

Abstract

Social differences in health and illness are well-documented in Denmark. However, very little is known about how health practices manifest in the everyday lives of different social classes. We propose acts of resistance and formation of health subjectivities as helpful concepts to develop our understanding of how dominant health discourses are appropriated by different social classes and transformed into different practices promoting health and preventing illness. Based on fieldwork in two different social classes, we bring forth how these practices both overtly and subtly challenge the normative power of the health promotion discourse. These diverse and ambiguous forms of everyday resistance illustrate how and when situated concerns move social actors to subjectively appropriate health promotion messages. Overall, these different forms of resistance elucidate how the standardized awareness and education campaigns may perpetuate the very inequalities they try to diminish.