We can see therefore that the promulgation of healthy lifestyles and the discourse of health promotion and the 'new public health' more generally are important and topical subjects which, although retaining some continuities with past health policy, can increasingly be viewed as representing a new paradigm of health care (Nettleton, 1995). Our concern in this volume is to try and make some sociological sense of health promotion and to review the critiques that are emerging in response to it.