Education for Lifestyle (Leisure) Counselling in an Unequal World (Szeged, Hungary)

Max Weber’s lifestyle model emphasizes the role of life opportunities, life chances and choices. Life opportunities provide the conditions for choosing one’s lifestyle. Life chances are the chances of actually realising the given values. For realisation it is the social environment that ensures the structural prerequisites. Opportunities, chances and choices in everyday life mean that people have a free choice within the wider or tighter boundaries provided by their social environment and related social pressure. At the same time, lifestyle is not only a dependent of one’s social position, but it also plays a considerable role in designating one’s position in the social structure.

            To make healthy lifestyle choices from among a set of given possibilities is not always easy. One needs proper background knowledge ensured by education or provided by professionals trained for lifestyle counselling. The Health Promoter qualification within the Recreation Organisation and Health Promotion Bachelor education offered by the University of Szeged, Juhász Gyula Faculty of Education, Institute of Applied Health Sciences and Health Promotion (Institute) makes professionals competent in creating a “health map” for individuals – in the family, in the workplace - including physical and mental status and lifestyle elements (leisure, nutrition, time management, environment) and build personalized (individual and community level) counselling activity, health promoting actions, campaigns and projects on identified needs. With his/her knowledge in the socio-demographic determinants of unequal opportunities and the means and “language” of addressing and approaching different social groups this professional can bring the best out of life opportunities and life chances to promote healthy choices. The presentation will introduce the audience into the unique skills, knowledge and competencies the above professionals possess and the ways they can be the most effective promoters of lifestyle – with useful leisure highlighted – in an unequal world.