Health promotion and its publics: Justifying handwashing education, 1920-1950


Emma Whelan, Dalhousie University

This paper speaks to the broader question of how ideologies of class, ‘race,’ and gender shape representations of ‘the public’ in health promotion, through an analysis of British and Canadian cleanliness and handwashing promotion, circa 1920 to 1950. Building on Steven Epstein’s concept of niche standardization and on Michel Foucault’s discussion of health as “the duty of each and the objective of all,” I argue that there are three main contexts in which ‘the public’ or certain segments of it are depicted: as advocates/supporters of cleanliness promotion; as hygienically ignorant or disadvantaged; and/or as responsible for causing or solving cleanliness-related problems. Illustrative examples are drawn from the papers of the voluntary health association, the Health and Cleanliness Council (England and Wales, 1926-1946), along with soap industry and state publications in Britain and its former colonies. The paper contributes to an understanding of how representations of ‘the public,’ while appearing to include everyone, may be deployed strategically and selectively to justify biopolitical interventions that responsibilize some citizens more than others for public health problems and their solutions.

This paper will be presented at the following session: