Kevin Riley

Weighing both sides: morality, mortality, and framing contests over obesity.

Despite recent and growing media attention surrounding obesity in the United States, the so-called obesity epidemic remains a highly contested scientific and social fact. This article examines the contemporary obesity debate through systematic examination of the claims and claimants involved in the controversy. We argue that four primary groups-antiobesity researchers, antiobesity activists, fat acceptance researchers, and fat acceptance activists-are at the forefront of this controversy and that these groups are fundamentally engaged in framing contests over the nature and consequences of excess body weight. While members of the fat acceptance groups embrace a body diversity frame, presenting fatness as a natural and largely inevitable form of diversity, members of the antiobesity camp frame higher weights as risky behavior akin to smoking, implying that body weight is under personal control and that people have a moral and medical responsibility to manage their weight. Both groups sometimes frame obesity as an illness, which limits blame by suggesting that weight is biologically or genetically determined but simultaneously stigmatizes fat bodies as diseased. While the antiobesity camp frames obesity as an epidemic to increase public attention, fat acceptance activists argue that concern over obesity is distracting attention from a host of more important health issues for fat Americans. We examine the strategies claimants use to establish their own credibility or discredit their opponents, and explain how the fat acceptance movement has exploited structural opportunities and cultural resources created by AIDS activism and feminism to wield some influence over U.S. public health approaches. We conclude that notions of morality play a central role in the controversy over obesity, as in many medical disputes, and illustrate how medical arguments about body weight can be used to stymie rights claims and justify morality-based fears.

Motor vehicles in China: the impact of demographic and economic changes.

While Chinas transportation sector is relatively small compared to other nations—both in absolute terms and relative to the size of the population—the nation is currently experiencing one of the highest annual motorization growth rates in the world. This rapid growth has raised both excitement among business leaders over the potentially enormous market for automobiles and concern among environmentalists over their further impact on the global environment. This paper examines the influence of population growth, increased urbanization, and economic development on the rapid growth of motor vehicles in China, and considers their implications for future motor vehicle growth in the country.

From Agricultural Fields to Urban Asphalt: The Role of Worker Education to Promote California's Heat Illness Prevention Standard

This article describes an innovative approach to reach and educate workers and worker advocates about Californias outdoor heat illness prevention standard. In 2010, Cal/OSHA initiated a statewide education campaign to reduce heat-related illnesses and fatalities and increase awareness of the standards requirements. In Southern California, the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH) focused on three principal strategies of community-based outreach, popular education, and organizational capacity building. Central to the LOSH approach was the integration of health promotores into core program planning and training activities and the expansion of campaign activities to a wide variety of rural and urban workers. We describe each of these strategies and analyze the possibilities and constraints of worker education to support implementation of this standard, particularly given the vulnerabilities of the impacted workforce, the often precarious nature of employment arrangements for these workers, and the resource limitations of Cal/OSHA.

Shaping the Future: Ten Years of the Occupational Health Internship Program

The Occupational Health Internship Program (OHIP) was initiated in 2003 to recruit a new, diverse generation of occupational safety and health (OSH) professionals and to advance OSH within union and community-based initiatives. It retains the principles of the original OCAW/Montefiore internship program while adapting to the changed landscape of the 21st-century workplace. Case studies of OHIP projects illustrate how students have contributed to key OSH policies—to regulate silica exposure among construction workers, apply principles of green chemistry with Vietnamese nail salon workers, and integrate OSH into “green” jobs in the recycling industry. They have supported innovative campaigns with immigrant workers in contingent jobs—from taxi drivers to warehouse workers. The students, in turn, have been inspired to enter the OSH arena as professionals and worker advocates with the potential to contribute new energy to an OSH movement.

Worker Engagement in the Health and Safety Regulatory Arena under Changing Models of Worker Representation

This paper examines the efforts of a labor-community-university partnership in Southern California to confront violations of workplace health and safety standards by employers of nonunion workers in low-wage jobs. A worker engagement model has opened avenues for workers and worker advocates to participate in the regulatory arena absent union representation. This approach has achieved notable successes to date, including groundbreaking Cal/OSHA citations and nascent collaboration with agency officials to target enforcement of health and safety standards. We argue this model constitutes the foundation needed to support a potentially viable form of tripartism that allows nonunion workers a voice, albeit limited, in the health and safety regulatory process.

Mortality and Morbidity during Extreme Heat Events and Prevalence of Outdoor Work: An Analysis of Community-Level Data from Los Angeles County, California

Heat is a well-recognized hazard for workers in many outdoor settings, yet few investigations have compared the prevalence of outdoor work at the community level and rates of heat-related mortality and morbidity. This analysis examines whether heat-related health outcomes occur more frequently in communities with higher proportions of residents working in construction, agriculture, and other outdoor industries. Using 2005–2010 data from Los Angeles County, California, we analyze associations between community-level rates of deaths, emergency department (ED) visits, and hospitalizations during summer heat events and the prevalence of outdoor work. We find generally higher rates of heat-related ED visits and hospitalizations during summer heat events in communities with more residents working outdoors. Specifically, each percentage increase in residents working in construction resulted in an 8.1 percent increase in heat-related ED visits and a 7.9 percent increase in heat-related hospitalizations, while each percentage increase in residents working in agriculture and related sectors resulted in a 10.9 percent increase in heat-related ED visits. The findings suggest that outdoor work may significantly influence the overall burden of heat-related morbidity at the community level. Public health professionals and healthcare providers should recognize work and employment as significant heat risk factors when preparing for and responding to extreme heat events.

Inequality and the State By John Hills Oxford University Press, 2004. 284 pages.

dialogical process than Oliver or Johnston recognize, one that engages with multiple forms of meaning and social context, including the ideological. Snow and Benford therefore claim that frame theory provides more precise analytical perspectives with which to understand political context and the precise function of ideology. No easy resolution is found, which is symptomatic of the need for greater dialogue between currently disparate theoretical traditions. Frames of Protest is an expansive and well-constructed volume that would be useful for students, scholars, and activists interested in social movement analysis. However, it is not without limitation. First, despite provocative case studies, they frequently are unclear bases for generalizations regarding framing processes in other contexts. Second, while much space is dedicated to frame theory’s dialogue with resource mobilization and ideology critique, comparatively little is given to other dialogues with critical theory – notably neo-Gramscian and Foucaultian traditions – that may further expand each theory’s powers to analyze movements and cultural structures. This said, Frames of Protest is a critically important compilation that both reinvigorates and challenges the framing tradition, and its open-ended quality invites all of us to participate in an ongoing dialogue about the processes of social change.