From Health Behaviours to Health Practices: Critical Perspectives

The importance of health behaviour is increasingly prominent in health–related research and policy interventions. As a result, the belief that there are discrete, observable, and measureable behaviours has become almost universally adopted. Often they are often conceived of in the negative as things people do that are bad for them, and which should therefore be subject to corrective, individualised interventions. In response, From Health Behaviours to Health Practices assesses the limitations of the concept through international contributions that complement, as well as critique, dominant conceptualisations of health behaviour. Drawing on a wide range of theoretical and empirical sources, the book explores whether there are alternative ways to both think through and conduct research into what people do and don’t do in relation to their health and experiences of illness. The volume collectively argues for a more socially situated approach, proposing that the term health practices has far greater potential to acknowledge the more complex, dynamic and contingent nature of everyday activities. Serving as an important point of reference for debate, the book additionally questions the potential contribution of contemporary medical sociology, and the social sciences more generally, in the context of the rise of multidisciplinary and mixed methods health research.

Simon Cohn is a Reader in Medical Anthropology at the London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. His research focuses on issues related to diagnosis, contested conditions and chronic illness in the UK and other high–income societies. With a strong commitment to contemporary social theory, Cohn is interested in ways in which innovative social science can shape aspects of medical practice.