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FirstView articles

Contents

Page 1 of 2

Book Review

Research Article

  • How Scientific Ignorance and Social Invisibility Shape the Issue of Occupational Health in France as a Nonproblem

  • Emmanuel Henry, Emilie Counil
  • Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    23 December 2024, pp. 1-30
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  • Rather than leading to the emergence of a problem, some processes contribute to limiting their scope and impeding agenda-setting. These “nonproblems” are situations that could have led to social mobilizations or public intervention but end up neither being publicized nor subject to strong policy. We use occupational health in France to illustrate these mechanisms. The social invisibility of work-related ill-health is linked to the joint contribution of two processes. Firstly, from the perspective of research on ignorance and undone science, scientific knowledge is under-developed compared to other public health issues. And even available knowledge is rarely used by policy-makers. Secondly, policies use underestimated numbers from the occupational diseases compensation system. This specific configuration of knowledge/ignorance and official counting plays a central role in the production of occupational health issues as a nonproblem. Their invisibility contributes to the production of inertia and public inaction that characterize public policy in this field.

Book Review

Page 1 of 2