'Good Health Is to Have a Good Life':How Middle-Aged and Elderly Men in aRural Town in Norway Talk about Health

摘要

Research suggests that lay perspectives of health are both gendered and contextual.Studies on how laymen and -women in specific contexts and at specific times talkabout health are hence important. This article approaches perceptions of health byrural middle-aged and elderly men of different educational levels and ethnic back-grounds in contemporary Norway through a series of 18 interviews. The men talkedabout health in terms wellbeing and the good life, achievable through experiencinggood functionality, absence of illness and pain, good relations with family andfriends, belonging to the community, and satisfactory body shape and weight. Find-ings are discussed with reference to Bourdieu's concept of capital and Connell's the-ory of hegemonic masculinity.