Obesity assemblages and surveillance in schools

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on the growing body of work in surveillance studies, to examine the increasing propensity in recent years towards the monitoring and collection of information about children’s weight and health within school contexts. Applying Haggerty and Ericson’s concept of the surveillant assemblage within school contexts, the paper examines how surveillant practices in schools are part of an assemblage constituted by a range of agencies, institutions and bodies, and socio‐technological developments constituted through a complex series of rhizomatic flows.

Keywords:

• obesity
• surveillance
• embodiment

Notes

1. See Penna (2005) for an analysis of the passage of the Children Act through Parliament and of Section 12, which facilitates the establishment of electronic databases to track the progress of all children in England and Wales.

2. For example, the recent interest in attempts to discover the ‘fat gene’ (for example FTO) which could be detected in young people early enough to guide intervention and preventative care for those deemed most ‘at risk’. The construction of the body as genetic information has gained saliency since the mapping of the human genome, and reflects this growing tendency to ‘explicitly construe the body in terms of flows of information’ (Van der Ploeg 2002, 65).

3. For example, in the UK in August 2008, Dr. Foster Research produced the well‐publicised ‘UK fat map’, identifying geographical hotspots where obesity levels were particularly high within the UK (see Cook 2008, 21). The map and accompanying report were compiled using data from GP practices, including a register of patients with a BMI of 30 or over.

4. For example, the recent naked appearance of rock star and well‐known fat activist Beth Ditto in the ‘lads mag’ magazine NME is illustrative of how the body takes on different meaning/function in different assemblages.