Journal of Obesity
Volume 2014, Issue 1 267286
The Contribution of Applied Social Sciences to Obesity Stigma-Related Public Health Approaches
This paper discusses the potential for in-depth, qualitative social science research to concretely contribute to program delivery. Even within the expanding fields of
critical obesity research, as Warin and Gunson note [5], the compiling of actual obese people?s experiences and perspectives has been limited.
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A recent debate in the Canadian Family Physician journal has highlighted that practitioners may be developing a more
critical view on the orthodoxy of advocating weight loss for every obese patient.
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These data on obese people?s perspectives and health will add to the rich work conducted in
critical obesity and fat studies, theoretical understandings of the body, and qualitative research done on discursive bodily and health perspectives of individuals? of all sizes, for example,
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3.2.
Critical Obesity Scholarship
Frequently aligned with HAES, or fat acceptance advocates, are critical obesity scholars [68].
These scholars, often from outside health fields, have raised critiques concerning dominant obesity discourse.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1155/2014/267286
Beyond Positivism: Understanding and addressing childhood obesity disparities through a Critical Theory perspective
What is
Critical Theory?
Critical Theory is a social theory used to identify and alleviate societal barriers that oppress groups of people. In a Critical Theory analysis of a health phenomenon, societal factors are examined to identify barriers to the well-being of vulnerable and disparate groups. Once barriers are identified, initiatives aimed at their elimination are advocated and implemented in order to remove the societal constraints to achieving good health (Freire, 1970; Habermas, 1984; Horkheimer, 1937).
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4932858/
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4662184
The Foundations of Critical Theory
The term critical theory broadly describes an interdisciplinary range of theories aimed at sociocultural critique. Such theories challenge the notion of objective knowledge by arguing that historical contexts and social processes always shape understanding. Scholars typically link the first use of the phrase critical theory to the Frankfurt School, a group of intellectuals whose work
derived from Marxist thought and also illustrated the influence of Freudian psychoanalysis. These scholars, including Theodore Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, Max Horkheimer, and Hebert Marcuse, were associated with the Institute for Social Research, which was founded in Germany in 1923. They argued for the capacity of theory to reveal and intervene against structures of domination. Horkheimer defined critical theory in contrast to traditional, empirical forms of theory, which endeavored to explain or understand phenomena without offering critique of them (Horkheimer, 2002). More than aiming to generate new knowledge, critical theory strives to produce theoretical frameworks that may allow for the emancipation of humanity from various forms of oppression. In particular, the Frankfurt School focused on class-based forms of domination in capitalist societies.
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Although it originated with Horkheimer, the phrase critical theory now operates primarily as an umbrella term to describe a range of theoretical and
critical perspectives?some of which have little or no direct relationship to the Frankfurt School. These theoretical frameworks include semiotics, postmodernism, poststructuralism, psychoanalysis, feminism, postcolonialism, transnationalism, race/ethnic studies, and queer studies. Within communication studies, this diverse array of theories shares a common interest in analyzing the relationship between communication, culture, and consciousness based on an understanding of social realities as constructed by symbolic systems and practices.
https://oxfordre.com/communication/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228613-e-74?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780190228613.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780190228613-e-74&p=emailAGV8l6oeujeDQ