Since obesity is on the rise, another form on bio-politics which regulates children’s lives is giving the example of what children should and should not have in their lunchboxes at school. In the article ‘Why it’s important for Kids to Eat Healthy Lunches’ (2015) written by Melissa Angela demonstrates why it is important for children to have a healthy lunchbox since ‘obesity in children is climbing… If lunch in school is promoting unhealthy habits and behaviours by having unhealthy choices, children are not learning to eat healthy. This can lead to making unhealthy choices in their future with regard to snacks and meals’ (Angela 2015). Thus, government put these guidelines into place providing children with a well-balanced diet, however children
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There have been many concerns in what food choices children are making, allowing the government and schools, more than ever, having to intervene into what choices children make for school dinners and what food is involved in their pack lunches so children do not become ‘poor, obese and lazy’ (Warin, 2011: 11). Thus, this is a Foucauldian understanding of ‘governmentality’ which the state exercises control over the schools and the children to regulate what they eat and how much to eat as he expresses that the ‘Government has as its purpose not the act of government itself, but the welfare of the population, the improvement of its condition, the increase of its wealth, longevity, health, and so on’ (Foucault, 1991: 100). Thus, it becomes evident from the concerns outlined here from Foucault, that obesity epidemic falls well within the dominance of the governing population. A key way to understand the governmental work through obesity in schools is to conceptualise the numerous ways that pedagogies are developed as ‘biopedagogies’. This concept was developed by Jan Wright (2009) as an addition of Foucault’s notion of bio-power and he states that ‘the notion of biopedagogies is drawn from Foucault’s (1984) concept of ‘biopower’, the governance and regulation of individuals and populations through practices associated with the …show more content…
Consequently, Wright suggests that biopedagogies position individuals under constant surveillance, especially obese people, pressuring them to monitor their bodies so they do not break the power of the norm. However, ‘these sites are not necessarily (and indeed mostly) in schools, but are everywhere around us, on the web, on television, radio and film, billboards and posters, and pamphlets in doctors’ waiting rooms’ (Wright, 2009: 12). Therefore, for obese individuals, especially children, the pressure to lose weight and be healthy is on the rise and is everywhere they look which they cannot escape. Foucault’s notion of ‘Governmentality’ is an approach that emphasises power and the governing of individuals conduct through the sovereign power to formulate the law, Foucault describes governmentality as ‘the ensemble formed by the institutions, procedures, analyses and reflections, the calculations and tactics that allow the exercise of this very specific albeit complex form of power’ (Foucault, 102-103). Thus, through this form of power that Foucault compels, the government are forced into taking control to improve health issues and creating an environment that encourages healthier eating and physical activity. The article ‘Role of Policy and Government in the Obesity Epidemic’ states that ‘the environment has a
There have been many concerns in what food choices children are making, allowing the government and schools, more than ever, having to intervene into what choices children make for school dinners and what food is involved in their pack lunches so children do not become ‘poor, obese and lazy’ (Warin, 2011: 11). Thus, this is a Foucauldian understanding of ‘governmentality’ which the state exercises control over the schools and the children to regulate what they eat and how much to eat as he expresses that the ‘Government has as its purpose not the act of government itself, but the welfare of the population, the improvement of its condition, the increase of its wealth, longevity, health, and so on’ (Foucault, 1991: 100). Thus, it becomes evident from the concerns outlined here from Foucault, that obesity epidemic falls well within the dominance of the governing population. A key way to understand the governmental work through obesity in schools is to conceptualise the numerous ways that pedagogies are developed as ‘biopedagogies’. This concept was developed by Jan Wright (2009) as an addition of Foucault’s notion of bio-power and he states that ‘the notion of biopedagogies is drawn from Foucault’s (1984) concept of ‘biopower’, the governance and regulation of individuals and populations through practices associated with the …show more content…
Consequently, Wright suggests that biopedagogies position individuals under constant surveillance, especially obese people, pressuring them to monitor their bodies so they do not break the power of the norm. However, ‘these sites are not necessarily (and indeed mostly) in schools, but are everywhere around us, on the web, on television, radio and film, billboards and posters, and pamphlets in doctors’ waiting rooms’ (Wright, 2009: 12). Therefore, for obese individuals, especially children, the pressure to lose weight and be healthy is on the rise and is everywhere they look which they cannot escape. Foucault’s notion of ‘Governmentality’ is an approach that emphasises power and the governing of individuals conduct through the sovereign power to formulate the law, Foucault describes governmentality as ‘the ensemble formed by the institutions, procedures, analyses and reflections, the calculations and tactics that allow the exercise of this very specific albeit complex form of power’ (Foucault, 102-103). Thus, through this form of power that Foucault compels, the government are forced into taking control to improve health issues and creating an environment that encourages healthier eating and physical activity. The article ‘Role of Policy and Government in the Obesity Epidemic’ states that ‘the environment has a