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peer-reviewed ; In 2009, US financier Bernard (Bernie) L. Madoff was jailed for 150 years after pleading guilty to running a massive ponzi scheme. While superficial condemnation was widespread, his US$65 billion fraud cannot be understood apart from the institutions, practices and fictions of contemporary finance capitalism. Madoff's scam was rooted in the wider political prioritization of accumulation through debt expansion and the deregulated, desupervised and criminogenic environment facilitating it. More generally, global finance capital reproduces many of the core elements of the Madoff scam (i.e. mass deception, secrecy and obfuscation), particularly in neoliberalized Anglophone societies. We call this 'Madoffization'. We suggest that societies are 'Madoffized', not only in the sense of their being subject to the ill-effects of speculative ponzi finance, but also in the sense that their prioritization of accumulation through debt expansion makes fraudulent practices, economic collapse and scapegoating inevitable.

Introduction: obesity discourse and fat politics: research, critique and interventions / Lee F. Monaghan, Rachel Colls and Bethan Evans -- Fatuous measures: the artificactual construction of the obesity epidemic / Julie Guthman -- 'Diabesity' down under: overweight and obesity as cultural signifiers for type 2 diabetes melitus / Darlene McNaughton -- Resisiting biopedagogies of obesity in a problem population: understandings of healthy eating and healthy weight in a Newfoundland and Labrador community / Deborah McPhail -- 'It's worse for women and girls': negotiating embodied masculinities through weight-related talk / Lee F. Monaghan and Helen Malson -- 'We're kind of devolving': visual tropes of evolution in obesity discourse / Francis Ray White -- 'Must I seize every opportunity?' Complicity, confrontation and the problem of researching (anti-) fatness / Karen Throsby and Bethan Evans -- Theorizing health at every size as a relational-cultural endeavor / Jennifer Brady, Jacqui Gingras and Lucy Aphramor -- Public health pedagogy, border crossings and physical activity at every size / Louise Mansfield and Emma Rich -- Obesity in the media: social science weighs in / Natalie Boero

peer-reviewed ; Despite considerable contestation, 'excess' weight/fatness is commonly framed as fatal and in need of behavioural interventions. This article reviews literature which places a question mark over or challenges dietary approaches to weight-loss before critically discussing an alternative weight-inclusive intervention, Health At Every Size®, which is filtering into mainstream discourse while also becoming increasingly fractious. After discussing principles, tensions, resonance and controversies, we reflect on the politics of health and the need to reject the all-too-common definition of weight/fatness as a proxy for individuals' unhealthy lifestyles and personal irresponsibility. In conclusion, we tease out some of the implications of our discussion for social theorizing of health and efforts to rethink the war on obesity. ; peer-reviewed

Despite considerable contestation, 'excess' weight/fatness is commonly framed as fatal and in need of behavioural interventions. This article reviews literature which places a question mark over or challenges dietary approaches to weight-loss before critically discussing an alternative weight-inclusive intervention, Health At Every Size ® , which is filtering into mainstream discourse while also becoming increasingly fractious. After discussing principles, tensions, resonance and controversies, we reflect on the politics of health and the need to reject the all-too-common definition of weight/fatness as a proxy for individuals' unhealthy lifestyles and personal irresponsibility. In conclusion, we tease out some of the implications of our discussion for social theorizing of health and efforts to rethink the war on obesity.

This article explores the enterprising act of socially constructing fatness, or overweight and obesity, as an individual and collective problem. We argue that this process is complex and hence draw liberally on and extend an eclectic range of scholarship (e.g. the sociology of the body, moral panic theory, critical weight studies) when presenting a typology of obesity epidemic entrepreneurs, that is, those who actively make fatness into a correctable health problem. Using a variety of data, we consider six main ideal typical entrepreneurs: creators, amplifiers/moralizers, legitimators, supporters, enforcers/administrators and the entrepreneurial self. We conclude with a critique of obesity epidemic entrepreneurship and underscore the broader salience of our work for the sociology of the body/embodiment. The relevance of social studies of the body for the obesity debate and critical weight studies is also highlighted.

Cover -- Half Title -- Series Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of tables -- List of abbreviations -- Series editors' preface -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- An invitation to rethink obesity -- Clarifying terms and delineating approaches -- Structure and content -- Part 1: The politics of a 'public health problem' -- Chapter 1: The global obesity crisis: Situating critique in a broader context -- The ongoing world war on obesity -- A matter of perspective or frames? From public health to social justice -- Employing frame analysis in this problem field -- Embodying politics (power): from definitional practices to body materiality -- Summary and preliminary reflections -- Chapter 2: Critical perspectives: Key themes and meta-critique -- Evolving obesity science and epidemiology: updating the critique -- Early reflections on COVID-19 and obesity -- Reflexivity, 'diabesity' and 'the big two' -- Appeals to the obesogenic environment: a more socially mindful account? -- From weight-loss interventions to 'the obesity-survival paradox' (paradigm) -- Media, 'fat panic' and body pedagogies -- Introducing critical media studies of fatness/obesity: from movies to scientific news reports -- New forms of health media as instructional: from reality television to digital media -- Weight-related stigma: the embodied effects and affects of obesity discourse -- Research on adults and weight-related stigma -- Young people, obesity discourse and schooling -- Meta-critique -- Conclusion: moving the debate forward -- Chapter 3: Pedagogising obesity knowledges and the recontextualisation of policy -- Theorising anti-obesity policy as pedagogy: the focus on communication -- The pedagogic device of anti-obesity policy: a three rules approach -- The distributive rules in the ORF of anti-obesity policy.

Discourses regarding a 'global obesity crisis' and alternative frames (e.g. weight-inclusive approaches to health) have proliferated through various media of communication. These media range from traditional print and visual formats (e.g. newspapers and television shows) to digital media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), which enable different publics to produce, and not just consume, text, images and other data relating to the body. Reflecting a sociological understanding of educational practices as extending beyond formal schooling, mediated obesity discourse and counter-movements have also been conceptualised as public pedagogies, which instruct people how to relate to their own and other's bodies, health and subjectivities. This article examines what is critically known about various media at a time when governments and agencies are reinvigorating the global war on obesity, with populations being 'advised' to become and remain conscientious weight watchers. In conclusion, the article underscores the salience of social studies of the media when seeking to rethink obesity, incorporating critical reference to moral panic theory and the need to better understand what media can 'do' as enactments of public pedagogy.

AbstractDiscourses regarding a 'global obesity crisis' and alternative frames (e.g. weight‐inclusive approaches to health) have proliferated through various media of communication. These media range from traditional print and visual formats (e.g. newspapers and television shows) to digital media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook, YouTube), which enable different publics to produce, and not just consume, text, images and other data relating to the body. Reflecting a sociological understanding of educational practices as extending beyond formal schooling, mediated obesity discourse and counter‐movements have also been conceptualised as public pedagogies, which instruct people how to relate to their own and other's bodies, health and subjectivities. This article examines what is critically known about various media at a time when governments and agencies are reinvigorating the global war on obesity, with populations being 'advised' to become and remain conscientious weight watchers. In conclusion, the article underscores the salience of social studies of the media when seeking to rethink obesity, incorporating critical reference to moral panic theory and the need to better understand what media can 'do' as enactments of public pedagogy.

Focusing upon scapegoating in post-crash Ireland, this article considers a pervasive political process that is protective of powerful interests and the status quo following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Drawing from group conflict theory and framing analysis as part of a broader critical realist take on society, we consider how blame has been placed on myriad targets, ranging from a collective 'we who went a bit mad with borrowing' to more specific groups such as public sector workers, the unemployed, single mothers and immigrants. In conclusion, we underscore the need for sociology to assert its relevance by challenging such processes and defend civil society in a capitalist world-system that is in structural crisis.

non-peer-reviewed ; Focusing upon scapegoating in post-crash Ireland, this article considers a pervasive political process that is protective of powerful interests and the status quo following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. Drawing from group conflict theory and framing analysis as part of a broader critical realist take on society, we consider how blame has been placed on myriad targets, ranging from a collective 'we who went a bit mad with borrowing' to more specific groups such as public sector workers, the unemployed, single mothers and immigrants. In conclusion, we underscore the need for sociology to assert its relevance by challenging such processes and defend civil society in a capitalist world-system that is in structural crisis.

non-peer-reviewed ; Irish society continues to reel in the aftershock of the 2008 global financial crisis, particularly since the government socialised the massive liabilities of private banks. Sensitized to antagonistic social relations using group conflict theory, frame analysis and Marxian informed critique, this paper reflects on some of the corrosive social consequences of the crisis. In particular, we interrogate hegemonic discourses which scapegoat various targets, such as public sector workers and social welfare recipients. While scapegoating is understood anthropologically as the 'transference of evil' our sociological interest is in the transference of blame and privately accumulated debt as part of a class project that has served finance capital and its representatives so well. In conclusion, we suggest that Ireland serves as an example of the power and dominance of the financial sector under late capitalism, and of the ideological means by which its socially corrosive ends are currently facilitated.

Female bodybuilding raises an obvious question: how should we judge these metamorphosized bodies and associated practices? We will reframe this question as part of a short communication on what many people judge to be a paroxysmal body that is deservedly discredited. Drawing from Kant's distinction between 'free beauty' and 'adherent beauty', our commentary revolves around the notion of aesthetic judgment. Different expressions of this are considered. For our purposes, manifestations of these judgments are discussed in two 'ideal typical' interactional contexts: one between bodybuilding enthusiasts and the other between female bodybuilders and non-affiliates within the cultural mainstream. The issue of judgment within sociological writing on female bodybuilding is also raised alongside our endorsement of an embodied, interactionist approach and qualitative research.