On Folk Devils, Moral Panics and New Wave Public Health

2019/09/29 by Russell Mannion, Neil Small · 1 citation
Health Professions · Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · Medicine · Nursing · #Obesity and Health Practices #Crime, Deviance, and Social Control #Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology #Moral panic #Context (archaeology) #Public health #Moral responsibility #Dysfunctional family #Sociology #Political science #Criminology #Medicine #Psychiatry #Law #History #Nursing

paper · pdf · doi:10.15171/ijhpm.2019.78

openalex publication_date 2019/09/29 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

New wave public health places an emphasis on exhorting individuals to engage in healthy behaviour with good health being a signifier of virtuous moral standing, whereas poor health is often associated with personal moral failings. In effect, the medical is increasingly being collapsed into the moral. This approach is consistent with other aspects of contemporary neoliberal governance, but it fuels moral panics and creates folk devils. We explore the implications and dysfunctional consequences of this new wave of public health policy in the context of the latest moral panic around obesity.

Citations

• Tightening the focus: moral panic, moral regulation and liberal government1
• Realising governmentality: Pastoral power, governmental discourse and the (re)constitution of subjectivities
• Folk Devils and Moral Panics

Cited by

• Moral panic [wikipedia]

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