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On folk devils, moral panics and new wave public health

Yes / New wave public health places an emphasis on exhorting individuals to engage in healthy behaviour with good health being a signifier of virtuous moral standing, whereas poor health is often associated with personal moral failings. In effect, the medical is increasingly being collapsed into the moral. This approach is consistent with other aspects of contemporary neoliberal governance, but it fuels moral panics and creates folk devils. We explore the implications and dysfunctional consequences of this new wave of public health policy in the context of the latest moral panic around obesity.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/18215
Date28 November 2020
CreatorsMannion, R., Small, Neil A.
Source SetsBradford Scholars
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeEditorial, Published version
Rights(c) 2019 The Authors. This is an Open Access article distributed under the Creative Commons CC-BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), CC-BY

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