Governing public health in England and Denmark

The chapter provides a solid understanding of the historical and political contexts of the obesity and recovery-oriented interventions analysed in the proceeding chapter. The wider purpose of this historical and political contextualisation is to provide an insight into the ways in which health promotion is unfolding in England and Denmark. We argue that three general strategies can be linked to the governing of health in both countries: prevention, cure, and promotion. These are distinct but nevertheless interrelated strategies. All three strategies are relevant today, but health promotion has come to play a hitherto unseen important role in Danish and English health policies since around 1990.