Document Detail


Socio-economic status, forms of capital and obesity.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  22297485     Owner:  NLM     Status:  MEDLINE    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
INTRODUCTION: While the relationships among socio-economic status (SES) and obesity are powerful and synergistic, the SES construct is insufficient to describe some of the cultural influences on status production in society, and therefore on obesity production. Socio-economic status has two closely related dimensions. The economic one is represented by financial wealth while the social one can incorporate education, occupational prestige, authority and community standing. These are, however, incomplete explanations for the relationships between societal inequalities and obesity.
DISCUSSION: Cultural factors associated with SES and obesity are examined here by using Bourdieu and Boltanski's theory of practice, which links economic, social and cultural forms of capital (or value) in an overarching category of symbolic capital. These represent categories through which power relationships within society are negotiated. This construct permits a more complete examination of societal stratification and its human biological consequences and amplifiers, since it incorporates the notion of cultural value in different groups of, for example, preferences in body size and shape. The focus is primarily on the USA, although it draws on literature from elsewhere in the industrialized world where appropriate. Differences in obesity rates across major ethnic groups are discussed, because this is an area in which forms of capital differ, and may offer new insights into obesity and factors that predispose to it, as forms of symbolic capital.
Authors:
Stanley J Ulijaszek
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Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article; Review    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Journal of gastrointestinal cancer     Volume:  43     ISSN:  1941-6636     ISO Abbreviation:  J Gastrointest Cancer     Publication Date:  2012 Mar 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2012-04-03     Completed Date:  2012-06-14     Revised Date:  2013-05-20    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  101479627     Medline TA:  J Gastrointest Cancer     Country:  United States    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  3-7     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6PF, UK. stanley.ulijaszek@anthro.ox.ac.uk
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MeSH Terms
Descriptor/Qualifier:
Body Size
Culture
Economics*
Food
Humans
Obesity / etiology*
Social Class*

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