The Dominance of Medical Discourse in Stunting Management: A Foucauldian Sociological Study in Jeneponto Regency, Indonesia
Abstract
Stunting management in Indonesia is organised through biomedical indicators, growth monitoring, nutritional counselling, and behavioural correction. Although important, their dominance may reduce stunting to an individual clinical problem, obscure structural inequalities, and marginalise mothers’ experiences and local knowledge. This study examined how medical discourse is produced, legitimised, and negotiated in stunting management in Jeneponto Regency using a Foucauldian sociological perspective. A qualitative case study was conducted from February to March 2026. Twenty purposive informants included one head of division at the Jeneponto District Health Office, four community health centre heads, and fifteen mothers of children identified as stunted. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews, observation, field notes, and document review. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis was used, informed by Foucauldian concepts of power–knowledge, normalisation, surveillance, and subject formation. Credibility was strengthened through source triangulation, member checking, peer debriefing, and an audit trail. Four themes emerged: the biomedical construction of stunting as measurable abnormality; surveillance and normalisation of children’s bodies; maternal responsibilisation through counselling and compliance expectations; and the negotiation of professional authority, material constraints, and local knowledge. Medical discourse enabled standardised detection and coordinated intervention, but it also narrowed causal explanations and placed disproportionate moral responsibility on mothers. Stunting policy should retain clinical assessment while incorporating poverty, food access, sanitation, gender relations, and community knowledge. A more participatory approach could redistribute responsibility and make interventions locally, contextually responsive and equitable.
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