Pelle PeltersSenior lecturer
About me
I am a health educator and health sociologist with a study background in pedagogy, biomedicine (human biology), health science and sociology as well as courses in psychology, theology and bioethics.
My research revolves around the question "What is good health?". The answer to the question, however, is less aimed at promoting a health whose meaning appears to be implicit and unproblematic, but to understand and illuminate the different meanings of health and what ‘the good’ in ‘good health’ might mean, based on these different perceptions.
In other words, I am interested in different variants of health (= healths in the plural!) as well as their meaning, normality, morality and power that are expressed in health cultures and health discourses.
My studies have dealt with health as identity-related doing (doing health), latent meanings of phenomena (e.g. hookah smoking, different kinds of pain in the gym), health discourses and health cultures (e.g. health as religion) and perceptions of health-related concepts (e.g. the relationship between health and well-being, health-/illness identities).
I usually apply constructionist and (post-) structuralist approaches and use a norm-critical and hermeneutic approach in my way of asking and answering questions.
A selection of publications:
Pelters, P. (2024) The good, the bad and the ugly – a Swedish qualitative interview study about the landscape of meaning-imbued, exercise-related physical pain, as experienced by ‘normal’ gym-users. BMC Public Health 24:1167, doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-18623-6
Pelters, P. (2024) I am what I am? - An integrative review of understandings of ‘health identity’ and ‘illness identity’ in scientific literature. Sociology of Health & Illness 2024;1–23, doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.13771
Pelters, P., Krister Hertting, K., Kostenius, C. & Lindgren, E.C. (2022). “This Group is Like a Home to Me:” understandings of health of LGBTQ refugees in a Swedish health-related integration intervention: a qualitative study. BMC Public Health, 22(1): 1-12. Doi: 10.1186/s12889-022-13641-8
Kostenius, C., Hertting, K., Pelters, P. & Lindgren, E.C. (2021) From hell to heaven? - lived experiences of LGBTQ migrants in relation to health and their thoughts about the future. Culture, Health and Sexuality. doi:10.1080/13691058.2021.1983020.
Pelters, P., Lindgren, E.-C., Kostenius, C., Lydell, M. & Hertting, K. (2021) Health-related integration interventions for migrants by civil society organizations: an integrative review. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. DOI: 10.1080/17482631.2021.1927488
Pelters, P. (2021) Right by your side? – The relational scope of health and well-being as congruence, complement and coincidence. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being. DOI: 10.1080/17482631.2021.192748
Pelters, B. & Roxberg, Å. (2018) “Don’t stop believing!” From health religiosity to an equality-enhancing hermeneutic of health promotion. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 13:sup1, 1555420, DOI: 10.1080/17482631.2018.1555420
Pelters, B. (2018): On mountains and prophets: Targeting majorities to support minorities by using norm-critics in health education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-being, 13:sup1, 1522203, DOI: 10.1080/17482631.2018.1522203.
Pelters, B. & Wijma, B. (2016) Neither a sinner, nor a saint: Health as a present-day religion in the times of healthism. Social Theory & Health 14(1), 129-148.
Pelters B. (2012) Doing Health in der Gemeinschaft: Brustkrebsgene zwischen gesellschaftlicher, familiärer und individueller Gesundheitsnorm [Doing Health in the Community: Breast Cancer Genes between the Societal, Familial and Individual Health Norm]. Bielefeld: transcript. [PhD thesis]
