Lifecourse and lifestyle: The social and cultural location of health behaviours

Drawing on two qualitative studies carried out independently in the U.K. this paper examines the cultural construction of physical and social ageing, and the part this plays in commonsense assessments of daily health relevant behaviour. The concepts of lifecourse and lifestyle are examined as they are presented in both social scientific and lay discourse. The collaborative inductive analysis was based on the observation from both studies that respondents regularly accounted for health and illness, and their associated behaviours, in terms of individuals perceived social circumstances and obligations. Position in the lifecourse was regularly used to express and encapsulate these constellations of socio-cultural processes and variables. The analysis focuses on three stages of the lifecourse as identified by respondents: and examines how these were related in lay discourse to particular health-relevant behaviours or lifestyles. It is concluded that it is important for health promotion to work with rather than against cultural norms and every day principles of social organisation in order better to understand lay perceptions of what constitutes acceptable health-relevant behaviour.