CONCEPTUALIZING CONTEMPORARY HEALTH LIFE-STYLES - MOVING BEYOND WEBER

The intent of this article is to move beyond the work of Weber and con struct a concept of health lifestyles applicable to the current phase of modernity. Beginning with the early twentieth-century work of Simme l and Weber on lifestyles generally, we move to midcentury to examine Bourdieu's perspective and turn to Giddens for an analysis of late cen tury conditions. We find that Weber's insight concerning the dialectic al interplay of choice and chance remains the central feature of the l ifestyle concept. We also suggest that in rapidly changing late or pos tmodern situations, lifestyles not only provide self-identity but also promote a sense of stability and belonging for an individual by provi ding an anchor in a particular social constellation of style and activ ity. Our discussion leads us to define health lifestyles as collective patterns of health-related behavior based on choices from options ava ilable to people according to their life chances. Consistent with Bour dieu's notion of habitus, we assign priority to chance (structure) ove r choice.