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Accepted Paper:

New roles for 'old' tools: informational materials as objects of value in the practice of health promotion  
Victoria Loblay (University of Sydney) Sisse Groen (The Technical University of Denmark) Kathleen Conte (University of Sydney) Penny Hawe (University of Sydney)

Paper short abstract:

Health education materials are often seen as a trademark of the health promotion profession. This presentation explores the value and meaning of these objects beyond a behaviour change framework. We delve into how these materials are made valuable in an era of evidence-based health promotion.

Paper long abstract:

The profession of health promotion has long been associated with health education materials. Health promotion leaflets, educational resources (posters, videos, handbooks), tokens (balls, skipping ropes) and artefacts carrying program messages (water bottles, mugs, T-shirts) are often thought of as a trademark of the profession. Ostensibly, these materials are designed to raise awareness or prompt behaviour change. The longevity of these tools in health promotion invites better understanding of their value and meanings, particularly now in an era of evidence-based health promotion. We undertook a multi-sited ethnography of health promotion practice in the context of Australia's largest ever rollout of childhood obesity prevention programs in schools and child care centres in NSW. This provided a window to observe how informational materials and program resources were made valuable in scaled-up program implementation. In terms of state-wide program implementation, these objects were both a form of standardisation (controlling the form of the program across the state) and a means by which practitioners were encouraged to tailor the program to local contexts. We contend that the value of these tools was much broader than the transmission of health information. We argue that in a profession in which 'relationship-building' is highly valued, program materials were part of a gift economy in which the value of these objects was constituted through social interactions. Further, these objects played a crucial role in developing collaborative engagements between practitioners working in a range of local contexts across the state.

Panel P36
What do they value? Anthropological perspectives on health-related professions
  Session 1 Monday 2 December, 2019, -