Assembling a health[y] subject: risky and shameful pedagogies in health education

Abstract

As a school subject, health education functions as a contemporary apparatus of governmentality by attempting to shape the health[y] conduct of young people. Currently, health education, along with many other institutions and programmes, is heavily shaped by neoliberal logics of risk. This paper is interested in exploring how these tenets shape versions of curriculum and classroom practices. The article draws on ethnographic data and the analytical device of governmental assemblages to consider how governmentalities are brought to life at their point of application; via teacher interviews and classroom practices. Analysis reveals that health education pedagogical assemblages are made up of the usual ‘neoliberal suspects’: risk discourses and strategies that attempt to individualise and responsibilise. However, accompanying these ‘usual suspects’ are a raft of melodramatic and affective intensities, including disgust and shame. These affective pedagogical assemblages are significant for scholars interested in understanding the governmental machinery of health education, and public health and health promotion more broadly, and its potential effects.