ABSTRACT

The Routledge Handbook of Critical Obesity Studies is an authoritative and challenging guide to the breadth and depth of critical thinking and theory on obesity. Rather than focusing on obesity as a public health crisis to be solved, this reference work offers divergent and radical strategies alongside biomedical and positivist discourses.

Comprised of thirty nine original chapters from internationally recognised academics, as well as emerging scholars, the Handbook engages students, academics, researchers and practitioners in contemporary critical scholarship on obesity; encourages engagement of social science and related disciplines in critical thinking and theorising on obesity; enhances critical theoretical and methodological work in the area, highlighting potential gaps as well as strengths; relates critical scholarship to new and evolving areas of obesity-related practices, policies and research. 

This multidisciplinary and international collection is designed for a broad audience of academics, researchers, students and practitioners within the social and health sciences, including sociology, obesity science, public health, medicine, sports studies, fat studies, psychology, nutrition science, education and disability studies.

part A|8 pages

Introduction

part B|66 pages

History

chapter |12 pages

2

chapter 3|17 pages

How body size became a disease

A history of the body mass index and its rise to clinical importance
Size: 0.21 MB

chapter 4|9 pages

Obesity in transition

A challenge in modern history

chapter 5|7 pages

Obesity in Brazil

Between liberties and pathologies 1

chapter 6|10 pages

Middle-aged businessman and social progress

The links between risk factor research and the obesity epidemic

chapter 7|9 pages

Crisis revisited

Historical notes on a modern ‘obesity epidemic’

part C|47 pages

Theory

chapter 8|8 pages

Devil Pray

Fat studies in an obesity research world

chapter 9|9 pages

Not the Medicine Needed?

Governing fat women's bodies via exercise prescriptions

chapter 12|7 pages

A personal reflection on editing

‘Unmasking’ the critical obesity researcher against itself

part D|76 pages

Food

chapter 18|11 pages

Obesity and the proper meal at workplace

French and English at the table and (or beyond) the culturalist explanation

part E|72 pages

Bodies

chapter 20|7 pages

(Re)defining language

‘Fat’, ‘overweight’, and ‘obese’ identities

chapter 22|7 pages

The ubiquity of the experience of being “too fat”

Perspectives from young people in Germany

chapter 23|10 pages

A mother of a problem

Addressing the gendering of obesity panic

chapter 24|9 pages

Fighting fat in families?

chapter 25|10 pages

Goldilocks Days

Optimal activity mixes in Australian children

chapter 26|8 pages

Fat activism and physical activity

part G|52 pages

Policies

chapter 32|9 pages

Evidence as a fig leaf

Obesity policies and institutional filters in Denmark

chapter 35|10 pages

New language, old assumptions

The shifting language in British Columbia's physical and health education curricula

chapter 36|10 pages

The ethics of obesity policy

part H|34 pages

Future directions

chapter 38|11 pages

Changing attitudes

A review and critique of weight stigma intervention research