Bio-power and healthism

Western societies today are engrossed by health issues. We live in culture of healthism where health has become a sign of normality and morality. This paper draws on some interesting debates in the sociology of medicine to interpret healthism from a Foucaultian perspective. Health is tightly integrated into regimes of bio-power in welfare societies, but its significance changes in 'risk societies' where the state increasingly withdraws from its responsibility for individuals. As it gives up on its caring - and controlling - role, do individuals acquire more autonomy and empowerment? It seems that the reverse is true. People are burdened with responsibility for their lives, in which health represents a dominant value. The disciplinary discourse of health in risk societies takes on a new form - that of self-education, self-regulation and self-control. Thus, the rhetoric of individual empowerment masks the disciplinary nature of healthism.