This article introduces some of the key concepts that we have used in our research to help illuminate the multiple and different ways in which apparently ubiquitous health policies relating to obesity, exercise, diet and health are mediated and shaped both globally and nationally, as well as within regional, school and other contexts. The analyses…

Drawing on research investigating the impact of health imperatives around obesity, diet and exercise on the actions of teachers and pupils in schools, this paper offers a reflexive account of the relationships between the "noise" of obesity discourse in the public domain, policies forged to tackle health issues and the realities of…

"Health" has become a major concern of policy makers internationally in recent years, especially where and when it is reduced to a measurable and, therefore, comparable commodity/"quality": weight and obesity levels. Schools in many countries have increasingly been charged with responsibility for safeguarding children's health,…

This paper examines the inexorable rise of "health" as regulative discourse, highlighting its class and cultural dimensions. With reference to the policy content of recent obesity reports, analysis suggests that contemporary concerns around obesity are but a modern variant of earlier eighteenth and nineteenth century child saving crusades whose…