title: Choosing health, constrained choices.
abstract: In parallel with the neo-liberal retrenchment of the welfarist state, an increasing emphasis on the responsibility of individuals in managing their own affairs and their well-being has been evident. In the health arena for instance, this was a major theme permeating the UK government's White Paper Choosing Health: Making Healthy Choices Easier (2004), which appealed to an ethos of autonomy and self-actualization through activity and consumption which merited esteem. As a counterpoint to this growing trend of informed responsibilization, constrained choices (constrained agency) provides a useful framework for a judicious balance and sense of proportion between an individual behavioural focus and a focus on societal, systemic, and structural determinants of health and well-being. Constrained choices is also a conceptual bridge between responsibilization and population health which could be further developed within an integrative biosocial perspective one might refer to as the social ecology of health and disease.
authors.affiliation: Health and Social Policy Research Cluster, Women's Development Research Centre (KANITA), Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia. ckchan50@yahoo.com
authors.lastname: Chee Khoon Chan
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D005260:Female; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011057:Politics; D006113:United Kingdom