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In this article, we study health literacy as entangled and situated processes of authorisation of pregnant women to become competent caretakers of their own physical activity and health based on the development of the practice of ‘learning to take notice’. Based on our ethnographic fieldwork in a randomised controlled trial on physical activity during pregnancy called FitMum, we develop a processual conceptualisation of health authorisation as multidirectional flows between participants, staff and technologies. Using the concepts of attunement and authorisation from Latour and Despret, we suggest that health literacy is not just something that can be acquired once and for all, but is processual and must be maintained, nurtured and developed through continuous negotiations, adjustments and adaptations to the constantly changing conditions of the health subject.

Recent years have seen an increase in health-related activities and exhibitions, as a rising number of museums are addressing global public health challenges. Museums have been identified as promis...

Knowledge is co-constituted by the forms in which it is developed and communicated. Methodological and epistemological designs determine which knowledge performance sequences are correct, which positions can follow each other, and which steps can evolve into another combination. The article directs attention to the performative agency of scholarly forms and engages in playful, emotional knowledge enactments, where the mood of the reader and the sentiment of the researcher form part of the ontological choreography. With the introduction of a ‘Knowledge Catcher’ the habitual format for engagement is challenged through the creation of space-time wormholes connecting reader and writers in a co-performance of knowledge. The Knowledge Catcher

In this article, we situate the practices of health and physical activity in household collectives, and conceptualise everyday health 'behaviour' and lifestyle as complex, collective practices. Based on an ethnographic study on everyday family life and health practices, we provide a framework for understanding the household as a collective, where the household collective may take precedence over individual preferences, and individual behaviour has collective implications. We describe the household as a node for practices, gathered by the activities that draw together and align actors in collective practices of everyday life. In the everyday efforts of the households to live up to ideals and balance conflicting practices, healthy living is about more than simple, individual choices about whether to follow health recommendations or not. It is also dependent on pragmatic negotiations, the distribution of roles and tasks and conflicts between ideals and what is feasible in the everyday management and maintaining of the household. We suggest that engaging with these collectives could serve as a useful point of departure for health promotion activities, situating health promotion in the here and now of collectives, tinkering with their specific constellations, values and identities in the entangledness of multiple household practices.

Museums and science centres are increasingly employing participatory approaches to exhibition design. Despite the increasing interest, the dynamics, challenges and benefits of employing par...

This paper presents a scoping study of the written materials used in 19 health promoting exhibitions presented at American and European museums and science centres, with the aim of assessing and discussing their health promotion potentials. Our descriptive results provide an overview of the exhibition context, and the five action areas of the WHO Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion were used as a theoretical framework for analysing the breadth of the current health promoting exhibitions. Drawing on Nutbeam's health outcome framework, we assessed the health-related outcomes of the exhibitions. The discussion considers the challenges and opportunities faced by museums taking on health promotion activities with regard to evaluating broad health-related outcomes, creating an inclusive exhibition environment and fostering open-ended learning experiences. The health promotion potentials of exhibitions may be increased by building on a broader notion of health, by increasing empowerment and equity and by...

By focusing on different constructions of the elderly and how these definitions are aligned within a Danish public–private innovation partnership called No Age, the article examines how various understandings of ‘the elderly’, ‘active ageing’ and ‘health’ clash and entangle in innovation work. The ambition of No Age is to create welfare technologies for elderly people. The authors were invited to contribute ethnographic insights to the partnership. We argue that the No Age's innovation process creates doable problems by co-producing technological solutions, their users and the health issues the products are designed to address. Furthermore, we argue that the specific constellation and alignment of actors in such a partnership define how and what kinds of users are constituted, as the target groups and success criteria for the development of welfare technologies are shaped throughout the innovation process rather than decided at the beginning. This has implications for the role of ethnographers as providers of user-insights in health-related innovation projects.

Concern about obesity has prompted numerous public health campaigns that urge people to be more physically active. The campaigns often include normative statements and attempt to impose restrictions on individuals' lives without considering the complexities of daily life. We suggest that broadening the focus to reflect everyday practices would foster better targeted public health campaigns. This article is based on our participation in FINE, a multidisciplinary Danish research project. The core methodology of FINE was a randomised controlled trial in which 61 moderately overweight men were put into different exercise groups. In this article we analyse the scientific work of the trial as representing entangled processes of bodywork, where data are extracted and objectified bodies are manipulated and care practices address the emotional, social and mundane aspects of the participants' everyday lives. Care practices are an inherent part of producing scientific facts but they are removed from the recognised results of scientific practice and thus from common public health recommendations. However, knowledge about the strategic use of care practices in lifestyle interventions is important for public health initiatives and future efforts should incorporate this aspect.

Aims: Sixty-one healthy, sedentary, moderately overweight young men participated in a randomised controlled trial to examine the effects of two different doses of endurance exercise on health behaviour and exercise compliance. Methods: Participants were randomised to a sedentary control group, a moderate (MOD; 300 kcal/day) or a high-dose (HIGH; 600 kcal/day) endurance exercise group for 12 weeks. A sub-set of the subjects were interviewed using pre-determined, qualitative questions to elucidate physical activity and health behaviour. In combination with the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), a post hoc thematic analysis was conducted to connect qualitative and quantitative data in a joint analysis. Results: Of the subjects interviewed, exercise compliance expressed as 95% CI was [96.8; 103%] in the MOD group and [82.9; 99.6%] in the HIGH group. The different doses of daily exercise equally improved various metabolic health parameters. The MOD group was untroubled by the exercise load and had a positive attitude towards exercise. The HIGH group expressed increased fatigue, less positivity and perceived exercise as time-consuming. The MOD group described themselves as more energetic, and thereby may have increased physical activity levels in areas of their everyday lives that were not related to the intervention. Conclusions: A multidisciplinary approach provided explanations for similar effects of two different doses of exercise. This could not have been determined via either qualitative or quantitative methodology alone. The preconditions of the TBP were fulfilled, and it represents a methodological model to explain the high degree of compliance and motivation to exercise.