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7 - Toxicity, Health, and Environment

from Part II - Embodied Environmental Sociology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 November 2020

By
Jennifer S. Carrera  and
Phil Brown
Edited by
Katharine Legun ,
Julie C. Keller ,
Michael Carolan  and
Michael M. Bell
Katharine Legun
Affiliation:
Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands
Julie C. Keller
Affiliation:
University of Rhode Island
Michael Carolan
Affiliation:
Colorado State University
Michael M. Bell
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Madison
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Summary

Environmental sociologists working in the intersection of medical and political sociology on topics related to environmental public health are bridging knowledge gaps around environmental risks, exposures, government accountability, and public mobilization. This most recent turn of environmental sociology engages in boundary crossing efforts that move beyond pure research to intervention that affects both health and environmental policy. In this chapter we examine how environmental sociologists have advanced understanding environmental health issues, in particular through pushing for social and structural understandings of traditionally individualized disease experiences. Alongside environmental justice activists, environmental sociologists argue for an intersectional approach to examining the roles of racism, gender, and social class in understanding the mechanisms that target vulnerable communities for pollution. Social scientists have highlighted broad impacts of environmental harms including complex physical effects, direct and indirect mental health impacts, and community-wide strains on social relations within affected communities. While several barriers exist that challenge this work, including academic expectations with respect to standards of proof, sample sizes, and institutional priorities, we point to equity building processes, such as community-based participatory research, civic science, and critical epidemiology, in which social scientists are well positioned to critically engage.

Keywords

Anti-toxics movementCommunity Based Participatory ResearchCritical Epidemiology Environmental JusticePower
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Sociology , pp. 117 - 136
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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