The importance of lay theorising for health promotion research and practice

Abstract

The paper argues that, in the present state of the art, there is a need for a much more flexible approach to theory building in health promotion. The development of the field has been paralleled by an appreciation of the importance of the social and cultural context in understanding health and health behaviour. This argues both for a shift in methods and a shift in the theoretical and philosophical approaches underpinning these methods. Principally, the need to bring back culture, and the failures of existing theory to tap into the richness, complexity and diversity of human experience, argue for a theorising which will reveal lay structures of thought underpinning everyday health-relevant behaviour.