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Towards a relational health promotion Veenstra, Gerry; Burnett, Patrick John

Abstract

The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) exhibits a substantialist approach to the agency-structure dichotomy. From a substantialist point of view, individual agency and social structure come preformed and subsequently relate to and influence one another, starkly positioning the choices made by individuals against the structured sets of opportunities and constraints in reference to which choices are made. From a relational perspective, however, relations between elements, not the elements themselves, are the primary ontological focus. We advocate for a relational approach to the structure-agency dichotomy, one that locates both agency and structure in social relations thereby dissolving the stark distinction between them, suggesting that relational theories can provide useful insights into how and why people ‘choose’ to engage in health-related behaviours. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, predicated upon the notions of field, capital and habitus, is exemplary in this regard.

Item Metadata

Title
Towards a relational health promotion
Creator
Veenstra, Gerry; Burnett, Patrick John
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Date Issued
2016-03-01
Description
The Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion (1986) exhibits a substantialist approach to the agency-structure dichotomy. From a substantialist point of view, individual agency and social structure come preformed and subsequently relate to and influence one another, starkly positioning the choices made by individuals against the structured sets of opportunities and constraints in reference to which choices are made. From a relational perspective, however, relations between elements, not the elements themselves, are the primary ontological focus. We advocate for a relational approach to the structure-agency dichotomy, one that locates both agency and structure in social relations thereby dissolving the stark distinction between them, suggesting that relational theories can provide useful insights into how and why people ‘choose’ to engage in health-related behaviours. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice, predicated upon the notions of field, capital and habitus, is exemplary in this regard.
Subject
Health promotion; Structure-agency; Substantialism; Relationalism; Ottawa Charter; Bourdieu
Genre
Article; Postprint
Type
Text
Language
eng
Date Available
2018-05-24
Provider
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
DOI
10.14288/1.0367028
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/2429/66086
Affiliation
Arts, Faculty of; Sociology, Department of
Citation
Veenstra, Gerry and Patrick John Burnett. (2016). Towards a relational health promotion. Health Promotion International 31, 1, 209-213.
Publisher DOI
10.1093/heapro/dau068
Peer Review Status
Reviewed
Scholarly Level
Faculty; Graduate
Rights URI
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Aggregated Source Repository
DSpace

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International