‘‘ Austin is always touted as being the fittest city but I know this certainly not true about those who live east of I-35. I know it’s a lot harder for them to take advantage of some of those opportunities when they’re just worried about living from day to day.’’ interview, advisor, Texas Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, 2006 ‘‘ Our unique challenge is ethnic diversity... they share more of the burden ofobesity.’’ interview, Obesity Program Coordinator, Texas Department of Health and Human Services, 2006 1 Introduction Obesity has risen quickly up academic and policy research agendas on both sides of the Atlantic over the past decade. As a contemporary health challenge, obesity seems to have made a significant impression on a growing host of social scientists, particularly those adopting overtly critical stances. As a group, these authors are notable for deconstructing obesity as a concept and classification in a number of senses: as an ‘epidemic’ (Campos, 2004; Gard and Wright, 2005; Oliver, 2006); as a public health ‘problem’ (Monaghan, 2005); moral panic or judgment of lifestyle (Saguy and Almeling, 2005; Saguy and Riley, 2005); and disciplining discourse upon (female) bodies (LeBesco, 2004; LeBesco and Braziel, 2001). Such accounts destabilize the somewhat simplistic categorization of obesity and obese people, (1) consequently render- ing the methods and rationale now being used to try to halt further rises in prevalence To the west and east of Interstate-35: obesity, philanthropic entrepreneurialism, and the delineation of risk in Austin,Texas Clare Herrick Department of Geography, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, England; e-mail: clare.herrick@kcl.ac.uk Received 14 March 2007; in revised form 16 May 2007; published online 9 September 2008 Environment and Planning A 2008, volume 40, pages 2715 ^ 2733 Abstract. The author draws on a case study of Austin, Texas to argue that the emerging cannon of critical obesity studies should be situated in and interrogated with reference to empirical research undertaken in the urban spaces that enable or constrain healthy behavior. With federal, state and city- scale government departments calling for concerted obesity-prevention efforts, it is suggested that this enterprise has now rendered Austin a space of philanthropic entrepreneurialism. Drawing on stake- holder interviews with those charged with healthy-lifestyle promotion, the author contends that the city’s bifurcation by Interstate-35 marks a clear real and imagined socioeconomic and racial divide. Moreover, this divide permits the delineation of East Austin as ‘at risk’ by virtue of its Hispanic population and the assumption that higher prevalent rates of obesity among Hispanic residents are an outcome of certain cultural norms. As a result, East Austin has been legitimized as a strategic place of intervention to help boost the city’s image as a healthy, and therefore good, place to live. However, such interventions favor changing personal behavior and therefore neglect to address the environ- mental and structural factors which, it is asserted, often have far more immediate and profound effects on health. doi:10.1068/a4048 (1) Obesity can be defined in a number of ways, the most frequent being the body mass index (BMI). This simple measure of risk is based on a ratio of weight to height correlated to the risk of morbidity and mortality. Obesity is hence classified as a BMI over 30.0. Critiques of the BMI as a reliable measure of health or health risk are numerous and include the fact that the BMI does not provide an accurate measure of body fat, does not account for those who may be ‘fit and fat’, or accurately represent risk among certain population groups (for example, Asians).