TY - JOUR
T1 - The chimera of choice in UK food policy 1976-2018
AU - Burges Watson, Duika
AU - Draper, Alizon
AU - Wills, Wendy
N1 - © 2020 Emerald Publishing Limited. This accepted manuscript is deposited under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial International Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). Any reuse is allowed in accordance with the terms outlined by the licence, here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. To reuse the AAM for commercial purposes, permission should be sought by contacting [email protected].
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - Purpose: This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of “choice” as it appears in UK policy documents relating to food and public health. A dominant policy approach to improving public health has been health promotion and health education with the intention to change behaviour and encourage healthier eating. Given the emphasis on evidence-based policy making within the UK, the continued abstraction of choice without definition or explanation provoked us to conduct this analysis, which focuses on 1976 to the present. Design/methodology/approach: The technique of discourse analysis was used to analyse selected food policy documents and to trace any shifts in the discourses of choice across policy periods and their implications in terms of governance and the individualisation of responsibility. Findings: We identified five dominant repertoires of choice in UK food policy over this period: as personal responsibility, as an instrument of change, as an editing tool, as a problem and freedom of choice. Underpinning these is a continued reliance on the rational actor model, which is consonant with neoliberal governance and its constructions of populations as body of self-governing individuals. The self-regulating, self-governing individual is obliged to choose as a condition of citizenship. Research limitations/implications: This analysis highlights the need for a more sophisticated approach to understanding “choice” in the context of public health and food policy in order to improve diet outcomes in the UK and perhaps elsewhere. Originality/value: This is the first comprehensive analysis of the discourse of choice in UK food policy.
AB - Purpose: This paper presents a critical discourse analysis of “choice” as it appears in UK policy documents relating to food and public health. A dominant policy approach to improving public health has been health promotion and health education with the intention to change behaviour and encourage healthier eating. Given the emphasis on evidence-based policy making within the UK, the continued abstraction of choice without definition or explanation provoked us to conduct this analysis, which focuses on 1976 to the present. Design/methodology/approach: The technique of discourse analysis was used to analyse selected food policy documents and to trace any shifts in the discourses of choice across policy periods and their implications in terms of governance and the individualisation of responsibility. Findings: We identified five dominant repertoires of choice in UK food policy over this period: as personal responsibility, as an instrument of change, as an editing tool, as a problem and freedom of choice. Underpinning these is a continued reliance on the rational actor model, which is consonant with neoliberal governance and its constructions of populations as body of self-governing individuals. The self-regulating, self-governing individual is obliged to choose as a condition of citizenship. Research limitations/implications: This analysis highlights the need for a more sophisticated approach to understanding “choice” in the context of public health and food policy in order to improve diet outcomes in the UK and perhaps elsewhere. Originality/value: This is the first comprehensive analysis of the discourse of choice in UK food policy.
KW - Choice
KW - Consumers
KW - Discourse analysis
KW - Food policy
KW - Governance
KW - Individualisation
KW - Policy framing
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85098529918&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/BFJ-10-2020-0982
DO - 10.1108/BFJ-10-2020-0982
M3 - Article
SN - 0007-070X
VL - 123
SP - 1596
EP - 1609
JO - British Food Journal
JF - British Food Journal
IS - 4
ER -