16 Oct 2025

The rise of 'Healthization'

From Nights, 9:25 pm on 16 October 2025

For young New Zealanders today, having 'health' means more than just not getting sick. 

Over the past few decades, what health and being healthy looks like has undergone a serious cultural shift, an expansion to be something more moral.

Being healthy, in all aspects of life, is a personal responsibility, and something to exercise control over, whether that be one's emotions, friendships, or fitness.

This phenomenon is the subject of a new book by social anthropologist Professor Susanna Trnka from the University of Auckland, she calls it "healthization".

It draws on over two hundred interviews with New Zealanders aged fourteen to twenty-four.

Professor Susanna Trnka is a social anthropologist from the University of Auckland

Professor Susanna Trnka is a social anthropologist from the University of Auckland Photo: Penn Press