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Managing Uncertainty: Obesity Discourses and Physical Education in a Risk Society

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Abstract

This paper considers the role of physicaleducation researchers within current publicconcerns about body shape and weight. UsingUlrich Beck's notion of `risk' it examines howcertainty about children, obesity, exercise andhealth is produced in the contexts of `expert'knowledge and recontextualised in the academicand professional physical education literature.It is argued that the unquestioning acceptanceof the obesity discourses in physical educationhelps to construct anxieties about the body,which are detrimental to students and silencesalternative ways of thinking and doing physicaleducation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Allen House, Human Movement Studies Unit, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, NSW, 2795, Australia

    Michael Gard

  2. Faculty of Education, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, 2522, Australia

    Jan Wright

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  1. Michael Gard
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  2. Jan Wright
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Gard, M., Wright, J. Managing Uncertainty: Obesity Discourses and Physical Education in a Risk Society. Studies in Philosophy and Education 20, 535–549 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012238617836

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