I'm not convinced that a discussion about what constitutes "real" health
promotion is very constructive. Discussions about what is "real" and what
isn't have been used since time immemorial to judge others, to elevate
oneself through appeals to objectivity, and to the designation of
"insiders" and "outsiders".  From a critical and/or social constructionist
perspective, one is inclined to acknowledge that practices and bodies of
knowledge are contested and open to multiple interepretations. Further,
postmodernists would likely argue that attempts to assert what is "real"
health promotion reflects attempts to impose a "grand narrative" on others
that constitutes an abuse of power and a silencing of the voices of the
"other". I think the interesting subtext here though - and one worthy of
considerable discussion - is around the ethical stance and values behind
various forms of health promotion practice. My feeling is that this is
where we can quite appropriately and with conviction state our positions as
a matter of personal (or organizational) orientation and even try to
persuade others of it's merit - but this is something entirely different,
in my mind, from attempts to assert what is or is not "real" health
promotion (theory or practice). In other words, the acceptance of multiple
realities does not ipso facto lead to relativistic stance, just as a clear
identification of one's own ethical stance does not require inexorably it's
imposition on others.

I think Allison, Jane and others also raise some very fundamental questions
about how one maintains and asserts a broader socio-political focus and
vision in the face of tremendous daily pressure (borne of powerful
conservative strucutures) to reframe practice in very conventional
(ostensibly non-political, deradicalized) terms. One of the things that has
interested me greatly (and which I hope to make a future area of study) is
the way in which practitioners and others find avenues of resistance (in
discourse and in practice) to subvert these conservative agendas, and as a
means of reconciling their own ethical stance with the demands placed upon
them for particular forms of "programming".

Blake Poland
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Behavioural Science
University of Toronto