Bourdieu Concept of Obesity and health campaign

Bourdieu Concept of Obesity 1
Bourdieu Concept of Obesity
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Bourdieu Concept of Obesity 2
Bourdieu Concept of Obesity
Introduction
Obesity and overweight have been on a steady rise within the past 4 decades. Heath
campaigns and interventions have incorporated varies stakeholder approach in efforts to curb
the upsurge of the epidemic in developing countries. The chronic problem affects both adults
and children with the same intensity, and has since intensified pegged on the current
lockdown and movement restrictions as containment measures to reduce the spread of the
Covid 19 pandemic.
Physical inactivity attributed to sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy eating habits are the
major causes of Obesity and overweight, as decisions impacting urban design, land use and
transport in the contemporary societies have become increasingly car-friendly over time
creating a hiatus in living, working, shopping and leisure activities (Tran, 2016). As a
consequence, the role of formally active modes of transport, such as cycling and walking, has
dramatically been decreased. The sociological health proponents have equally linked culture,
environment and behaviour as major contributors to the chronic epidemic as well. A recent
HBSC study revealed that Family affluence also holds a significantly effect on with
overweight or obesity where those from lower affluence families were more likely to be
overweight or obese compared to their counterparts from more affluent backgrounds (Quick
et al., 2019).
Bourdieu’s theory incorporates the role of social dynamics that encompasses investigative
frameworks such as habitus, field, and capital general acting as determinants of
understanding the behaviour patterns and healthy lifestyle choices of individuals. It provides
an elaboration of how external social structures can influence the subjective experience of

Bourdieu Concept of Obesity 3
individuals in decision making as far as the fight to curb obesity is concerned (Luca, Hibbert,
McDonald, & illness, 2019).
Health promotion approaches towards the fight are yet to recognize that the social
determinants of health hold as much importance as the knowledge-based intervention
approaches in determining the behaviour lifestyles changes required to curb the amplification
obesity and overweight in the society (Nelson-Porter, 2017). The dispositions derived from
Bourdieu’s framework will help us in understanding the sociocultural and economic
attributable characteristics of Obesity and why health policies should embrace an integrated
and include strategies that incorporates both the social structures and educational based
approach that would ensure that individuals come up with healthy behavioural lifestyle
changes in the fight.
Cockerham 2013, posits that ‘it is very rare that agency ever truly frees itself from
structure’. It is therefore imperative to incorporate the role of social structures and
determinants in in order to come up with a more elaborate and integrated health policies that
would adequately tackle the obesity epidemic (Fuchs, 2011).
Economic Capital;
Bourdieu defines economic capital as materials material assets that are ‘immediately and
directly convertible into money and may be institutionalized in the form of property rights. It
includes financial resources, land or property that individuals can use to acquire and maintain
better health. Economic status has been identified to play a crucial role in determining the
health and nutritional status of individuals in the society (Pugacheva et al., 2016). Global
economic decisions such as income levels and food prices have been acknowledged as
overarching barriers to healthy food choices for low income families. The rising food costs,
have been conversely linked to an upsurge in obesity and overweight cases especially for

Bourdieu Concept of Obesity 4
economically deprived individuals who have little or no material assets to trade for a healthier
diet (Pugacheva et al., 2016). WHO recent studies have indicated that there has been an
upspring of restaurant and fast food joints in the neighbourhoods of low-income individuals
thereby creating an obesogenic environment. This is characterized by limited healthy food
varieties resulting from increase prices of healthier foods such as fruits, vegetables and whole
grain food per calorie serving whereas junk and under nutriotionished food products are more
affordable. Bourdieu’s disposition inclines that the amount of material resources that an
individual has to a greater margin determines the health behaviours and lifestyles that they
would adopt. In this light therefore, having little economic capital would result in more stress
and limit food choices of individuals thereby adversely influencing their health (Stehr, 2016).
Bourdieu’s economic capital reveals that socioeconomic status of individuals significantly
interplays with human nutritional status and healthy lifestyles. Miller and Brown (2005),
noted that economically disadvantaged groups always exhibit perpetual sense of urgency to
respond to immediate needs such as food, shelter and employment. They have an intense
present-time satisfaction levels and weaker attitudes to prevent the urge and cannot invest in
future health whereas more affluent socioeconomic groups have greater response and latitude
in this regard (Dumas, Robitaille, Jette, & Health, 2014).
Social Capital;
Bourdieu 1986 defines social capital as an integrated network-based asset that is available
in relationships and is consequently accrued by individuals. It is ‘the aggregate of the actual
or potential resources which are linked to the possession of a durable network of more or less
institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition’ (Laud, Karpen,
Mulye, & Rahman, 2015).