Beyond carrot sticks and sermons: The practice of education in obesity interventions

Abstract

Drawing from social anthropologist Tim Ingold’s work on education as skill and creativity, this chapter takes a social practice lens to the concept of education in obesity interventions. I argue that the dominant understanding of education as information transmission—from expert to novice—limits our attention to, and capacity to enact, social change around eating practices. Using ethnographic examples, I position education in the context of everyday spaces, relationships and social practices, thus placing skill as a key component of knowledge, rather than understanding individuals and information as the primary unit and transmission of knowledge. Looking to social practices (and not the individual) as sites of improvisation and change opens up new methodological and theoretical perspectives for public health programming and policy.