Abstract
This article discusses the effects of two trends in contemporary biomedicine that have so far been largely addressed separately: the steering of fields through programmatic "buzzwords" and the projectified nature of contemporary health research, care, and promotion. Drawing on a case study of an Austrian diversity-sensitive health promotion project related to obesity prevention, we show how the articulation of these trends-governance by buzzwords and projectification-often leads to not unproblematic and often paradoxical outcomes. Buzzwords such as "diversity" become especially important in an innovation-driven environment encouraging a promissory rhetoric. At the same time, the project form shapes and restricts how buzzwords (as typically vague terms that need to be fleshed out) are articulated and translated into a specific project design. In our case study of an obesity prevention program, the need to translate diversity into a "doable" project encouraged the identification of seemingly clearly delineated target groups and thus promoted a rather narrow understanding of diversity, which stands in tension with much more fluid and context-sensitive ways of performing "diversity." We show how actors grapple with these paradoxes. This restricts the full power a buzzword such as diversity could achieve in terms of social justice.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 138-163 |
Number of pages | 26 |
Journal | Science, Technology & Human Values |
Volume | 45 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 2 Apr 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jan 2020 |
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 509017 Social studies of science
Keywords
- GOVERNANCE
- OBESITY
- PUBLIC-HEALTH
- SOCIETY
- diversity
- governance by buzzwords
- health promotion
- obesity
- projectification of health care