Conclusion

This chapter concludes that health promotion strategies and interventions have supplemented and partially recast earlier curative and preventive approaches in both England and Denmark. On the one hand, it is clear that curative approaches and physical prevention both continue to play a fundamental role in public health politics. On the other hand, it seems clear, at least in the areas of obesity control and mental recovery, that health promotion strategies seeking to augment the productivity and vigour of individuals and the population through a wide range of institutional, psychological, and socialising interventions have grown substantially since the 1980s. The chapter concludes that the terms biopower, constructivist neoliberalism and optimistic vitalism are useful concepts to grasp current modes of health politics.