Paper long abstract:

Within the area of health promotion and older citizens in Denmark there is a broad understanding of health which supports the idea of Kickbush (1992) stating that it is to be found and promoted where people live, work, play and love. Yet much policy related to health promotion and care for older people and their possibilities of receiving various services is often based on criteria valuing physical aspects of health.

Based on ethnographic studies in a senior activity centre in Copenhagen (Nørtoft 2013) I wish to explore how the concept of health sometimes becomes a barrier for individual health promotion when it is interpreted on various levels and ways which do not necessarily corresponds with individuals' understanding of themselves and their everyday lives.

The exploration takes its point of departure in the social relations and dynamics in a group of older people meeting regularly in the senior activity centre and exercise together. Attempts of defining the purpose of the group and its activities in a narrow and physically oriented health direction change the social cohesion in the group and hence its health promoting effects for the group members.

With this in mind I wish to discuss how ethnographic studies can contribute to the development of health technologies based on heath educational interventions and policy and how this knowledge from the area of care for older people can also be useful and contribute to a broader understanding of health and health technologies' role in people's everyday lives in general.

Paper long abstract:

Interdisciplinary research collaborations are increasingly made a mandatory 'standard' within strategic research grants. Collaborations between the natural, social and humanistic sciences are conceptualized as uniquely suited to study pressing societal problems. The obesity epidemic has been highlighted as such a problem.

Within research communities disparate explanatory models of obesity exist (Ulijaszek 2008) and some of these models of obesity are brought together in the Copenhagen-based interdisciplinary research initiative; Governing Obesity (GO) with the aim of addressing the causes, mechanisms and the possible solutions of obesity.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted within two interdisciplinary research groups performing interventions on obesity, we ask: how is obesity configured as a phenomenon amenable to scientific intervention within research communities and through collaborative practices? Moreover underlining what we find to be the frailty and intimacy of managing interventions we ask what practices shape and sustain the intervention course?

These interdisciplinary engagements and the following entanglements of scientific models, standards, practices, everyday lives and technologies herein lead to the emergence of what we propose to be local models of obesity. Describing the emergence of local models of obesity we show how a specific model is being cared for, calibrated and embodied by research staff as well as research subjects and how interdisciplinary obesity research is an ongoing process of configuring but also extending beyond already established models of obesity.

We argue that an articulation of such practices of local care, embodiment and calibration are crucial for the appreciation, evaluation and transferability of interdisciplinary obesity research.

Paper long abstract:

Nursing care is increasingly about technology. Nurses (and patients) expect a certain outcome of the introduction of technology, for example to be able to follow patients more closely. This study aims to answer the question what differences there are between the expectations and the actual practices of nurses when using technology in care. The fieldwork for this study was conducted in a homecare setting, in a team of oncology nurses specialized in palliative care. In a telecare project the nurses aim was to follow patients and check their symptoms more closely, without being more intrusive by visiting them more often. A paper questionnaire, which asks patients to give a grade to their symptoms, was digitalized in order to fit the telecare project. The data of this project comes from interviews with patients and nurses and observations of telecare consultations. The analysis focusses on the different expectations and practices. The digital questionnaire made patients change their behavior, as they did not want to fill it in or alarm the nurse with a high score. Nurses concluded that everything was well. Similar changes occurred on the ideas of who is in charge. Nurses wanted patients to be in control of contact, but if they did not use the machine, nurses got in touch anyway. Technology is not a neutral player, but actively changes the care it is used for and new forms of care originate.

Paper long abstract:

In 2007, the national government in Denmark instituted municipal reforms that gave each of its 98 municipalities responsibility for health promotion and prevention. At the policy level, community-based health-promotion is meant to reduce mortality and improve health among the general population; at the local level, these strategies aim to encourage individuals to improve their functionality, perceptions of health and achieve a 'good' quality of life (cf. World Health Organization 2014).

With an ambition to improve health behaviors and minimize risk factors - such as diet, exercise, alcohol and tobacco use - Danish health policies often reiterate and reinforce non-heuristic conceptualizations of 'health' and 'aging' that are considered to be universally applicable. Based on ethnographic research in two contrasting municipalities in the greater Copenhagen area, we investigate how such policies are situated and enacted in different contexts.

Our paper asks: how have certain paradigms of 'health', 'aging' and 'the good life' been (re-)configured in the development and implementation of public-health policies?

We unfold the process of designing and implementing contemporary health policies as a form of normative standardization; i.e., a process of "constructing uniformities across time and space, through the generation of agreed-upon rules" (Timmermans & Epstein 2010: 71). Taking inspiration from Foucault, among others, we explore the ways in which governmental policies designed to improve public health - which may appear to be politically neutral on the surface - may in fact become normative and powerful means of organizing modern life.

Paper long abstract:

As global ageing populations continue to pose challenges to societal models, healthcare systems and welfare states, the ageing body has come under intense scrutiny. Clinical trials examining the intrinsic biological ageing process, the potentials of human longevity and the benefits of lifestyle factors pose the ageing body as a model organism apt for modification and ready for change.

Drawing on the idea of the 'athlete as model organism' proposed by Andi Johnson (2013), we wish to explore how ageing bodies are examined, performed and configured in laboratory work. The ageing body is different from the athlete body as a model organism on a range of parameters (fitness, level of expertise, accommodation of laboratory techniques, reasons for participating), but there are also important similarities. Firstly, the ageing body is human and interacts with the scientists in contrast to mice or fruit flies. Secondly, elderly are often easily accessible for the scientists, as one of the reasons that they are interesting model organisms is that they are in abundance.

By using ethnography from two Danish research projects on healthy ageing, we argue that the ageing body is a model organism with specific requirements and needs in the laboratory setting. We propose that ethnographic exploration of the ageing bodies as they travel from everyday life to the lab and back is crucial in order to understand how the 'modelling' effects the ageing body, and how the ageing body lets itself be an object of such scrutiny.