Constructing a healthy, knowledgeable and well-educated citizen: motivational interviews and physical activity on prescription

Abstract

In recent decades education has been suggested as an important solution to current problems of the population’s health. A high level of education in general is construed as essential for the nation’s well-being and competitiveness. In this article we problematise the ways in which discourses on education, learning and health have become interlinked. Drawing on a post-structural theorisation inspired by Michel Foucault, we analyse Swedish policy documents on education and public health and direct our attention to how the healthy citizen is shaped and fostered. We illustrate how the healthy citizen emerges in opposition to the non-healthy, non-desirable and abnormal citizen. Citizens are made responsible for identifying their deficits and suggesting solutions. Governing techniques, such as motivational interviews and physical activity on prescription, operates in order to shape such citizens. Through these techniques, a confessional relation emerges, where citizens are invited to disclose their deficits and problems and in so doing shape themselves in a desired way.