Negotiating the policy imperative to be healthy: Australian family repertoires of risk, leisure, and healthy lifestyles

Abstract

This article offers a sociological analysis of how different lower-middle income families engage with Australian government health policies and promotion campaigns aimed at reducing the risk of lifestyle disease (eat well, be active). Bringing together sociological literature across the domains of leisure, family, health and risk we identify tensions between the purposes of health promotion and purposive family leisure. Findings are presented from a qualitative study conducted with 21 adults and children in four families (nuclear, same-sex, single parent, blended) which identify discursive constructions of family leisure time, health and risk. Three key themes were identified within the family leisure repertories that included, tensions between purposive health and leisure goals, the importance of emotional relationships and the calculation of risk and benefit. The effect of class, gender and sexuality was also evident in different family constructions of leisure meanings, opportunity and ability to respond to the individualised responsibility inherent in healthy lifestyle policy. Our critical engagement with healthy lifestyle discourses opens up a range of issues for leisure research, policy and provision that embraces a more complex understanding of the social forces shaping family wellbeing.