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Breast-feeding advocacy, risk society and health moralism: a decade’s scholarship.

Lee, Ellie J. (2011) Breast-feeding advocacy, risk society and health moralism: a decade’s scholarship. Sociology Compass, 5 (12). pp. 1058-1069. ISSN 1751-9020. (doi:10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00424.x) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:34463)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00424.x

Abstract

This article reviews research published this century that engages critically with the mantra ‘Breast is Best’ and the associated expansion of official breast-feeding promotion programmes. In recent years there has been a marked increase in the number of such studies published. They mostly explore experience in English speaking, industrialised countries (the US, Canada, New Zealand, Australia and Great Britain) which are in some social and cultural respects dissimilar, yet where very similar developments and problems are detected in regards to breast-feeding promotion. We highlight how this exploration of breast-feeding promotion internationally has developed understanding of wider sociological themes. This scholarship, we suggest, has provided a powerful illustration of the relation between risk society (more particularly a heightened consciousness of risk) and the evolution of a code of conduct that regulates behaviour, that has been termed ‘health moralizm’. The article covers three themes: ‘Science, risk society, authority and choice’; ‘Public health policy and infant feeding’; and ‘Moralization and women’s identity work’. We conclude that the research discussed shows how the sociological imagination continues to shed light on the relation between private troubles and public issues. We also suggest one conclusion that can be drawn from this research is that official discourse and everyday maternal experience appear increasingly distant from each other.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2011.00424.x
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Depositing User: Mita Mondal
Date Deposited: 01 Jul 2013 10:19 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:11 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/34463 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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