Open AccessNUTRITION AND PUBLIC HEALTH: DIVISION OF LABOUR IN THE STUDY OF NUTRITION
Author(s) -
Duff John
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1990.tb00037.x
Subject(s) - commonwealth , publishing , politics , public health , style (visual arts) , division of labour , medicine , field (mathematics) , public relations , social science , political science , gerontology , sociology , nursing , law , history , archaeology , mathematics , pure mathematics
This article draws inferences from changes in the style of a nutrition journal which was originally published by the Commonwealth Department of Health, and is now published by the Australian Dietitians' Association. The changes reflect developments in the field of nutrition, towards more ‘scientific’ styles of inquiry and publishing, against the backdrop of a division of labour in which (mainly male) laboratory scientists produced scientific knowledge which was then communicated by (mainly female) dietitians and nutritionists. Consistent with the approach of the ‘new public health’, this paper argues that reliance upon ‘scientific’ methods alone diverts attention from the social, economic and political conditions which help explain not only the improvements earlier in the century, but current difficulties in bringing about further improvements.