Nutrition education and citizenship - Individual responsibility and democratic politics

Abstract

According to previous research, in contemporary western societies health is seen as an increasingly non-political issue. Rather than being at the centre of collective decision-making and democratic politics, health is regarded as resting on individual responsibility. In our study, we address the question of nutrition education in schools as well as the question of citizenship and democracy. The study consists of two parts: firstly, we analyse whether health – more precisely nutrition and diet – is portrayed as a political or non-political issue in textbooks for secondary school; secondly, and informed by the results from our analysis, we dissect and problematize what kind of citizenship that is constructed in textbooks. From a theoretical framework of politics, the article explores how citizenship emerges. Our findings so far show that health, and more precisely stress, is depoliticized in the textbooks.