Michael Penkler

Timescapes of obesity: Coming to terms with a complex socio-medical phenomenon

Obesity is generally considered to be a growing global health problem that results from changes in the way we live in late modern societies. In this article, we argue that investigating the complexities of contemporary timescapes (i.e. the entanglement of physical, culturally framed and personally experienced times) is of key importance for understanding how ‘the obesity phenomenon’ is conceptualised, performed and acted upon. Analysing both focus groups and print-media articles, we identified three major groups of temporal narratives that shape our perception of obesity: trajectories, temporalities and timing. Each group of narratives follows a different logic and performs a specific kind of ordering work: ontological work that defines what obesity ‘really is’, diagnostic work that assesses the state of contemporary society and moral work that assigns responsibility to act. We show how the narratives are assembled into distinct timescapes that distribute agency in specific ways. Combining data from both focus groups and media articles allows us to analyse how these two discursive arenas are intertwined, as it makes visible how stories travel and converge, but also diverge in quite important ways. This highlights the importance of a multi-arena approach to fully understand the tensions between different framings of health-related issues. The article argues that the difficulties of controlling body weight are closely entangled with a perceived lack of control over time on both collective and individual levels. In conclusion, we suggest time-sensitive approaches for the analysis of health phenomena and the development of corresponding policy measures.

Diagnostic Narratives: Creating Visions of Austrian Society in Print Media Accounts of Obesity

This study explores how Austrian newspapers and magazines report on the obesity epidemic. We show how the media provide a space for formulating situated diagnostic narratives, that is, accounts that develop both a diagnosis of society through the lens of a health phenomenon and a definition of the phenomenon itself. Nourished by globally circulating discourses, these narratives are articulated in a national context and are enmeshed in biopolitical struggles. Linking a diagnosis of society to the biomedical sphere grants authority to diagnostic narratives and creates a space in which otherwise contestable moral calls to return to traditional orders can be articulated.

Caring For Evidence: Research and Care in an Obesity Outpatient Clinic.

ABSTRACT In recent years, there has been a substantial increase in bariatric surgery rates. This form of obesity treatment is often subjected to the critique that it turns patients into passive objects of medical intervention. Similarly, efforts to ‘rationalize’ medicine, as in evidence-based medicine, are sometimes denounced for imposing a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach that neglects patient diversity. We argue that these critiques fail to do justice to the complexities of actual care situations. In our ethnographic study of a project for bariatric pre- and aftercare, we show how research protocols not only close down but also open up spaces for patient-centered care. Despite professional cautions, experiences of stigma and broader imaginations of biomedical care often lead patients to embrace surgery as a treatment conceptualized as a technological fix. We argue that investigations of how research and clinical practice intertwine need to be both empirically grounded and sensitive to wider societal contexts.