Toxic Bodies/Toxic Environments: An Interdisciplinary Forum

Roberts, Jody A.; Langston, Nancy; Egan, Michael; Frickel, Scott; Nash, Louise; Allen, Barbara L.; Vogel, Sarah; Rowe, Davis Frederick; Daemmrich, Arthur; Murphy, Michelle

doi:10.1093/envhis/13.4.629

Cited by 37 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…The inherent uncertainties of this research realm and the strategic unknowns and ignorance that can result have been the topic of a suite of fascinating sociological engagements (Frickel and Vincent , Frickel and Vincent , McGoey , Roberts et al . ). This is further exacerbated by a ‘lavishly funded army’ of commercial ‘doubt producers and doubt disseminators’ (2011: 40; see also Oreskes and Conway ) who twist uncertainty and complexity into arguments for regulatory inaction, delay and infinite calls for further research.…”

Section: Toxicity and The New Optics Of Ncdsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The optics of noncommunicable diseases: from lifestyle to environmental toxicity

Herrick

2020

Sociology Health & Illness

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Until recently, the noncommunicable disease (NCD) category was composed of four chronic diseases (cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease) and four shared, ‘modifiable’ behavioural risk factors (smoking, diet, physical activity and alcohol). In late 2018, the NCD category was expanded to include mental health as an additional disease outcome and air pollution as an explicit environmental risk factor. The newly‐expanded NCD category connects behavioural and environmental readings of risk and shifts attention from individual acts of consumption to unequal and inescapable conditions of environmental exposure. It thus renders the increasing ‘toxicity’ of everyday life amid ubiquitous environmental contamination a new conceptual and empirical concern for NCD research. It also, as this paper explores, signals a new ‘optics’ of a much‐maligned disease category. This is particularly significant as chronic disease research has long been siloed between public and environmental health, with each discipline operationalising the notion of the ‘environment’ as a source of disease causation in contrasting ways. Given this, this paper is positioned as a significant contribution to both research on NCDs and environmental risk, bringing these interdisciplinary domains into a new critical conversation around the concept of toxicity.

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Section: Toxicity and The New Optics Of Ncdsmentioning

confidence: 97%

The optics of noncommunicable diseases: from lifestyle to environmental toxicity

Herrick

2020

Sociology Health & Illness

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“…Its diffuse and ubiquitous infrastructure evades cumulative impact assessments and hinders efforts to mobilize citizens who might otherwise rise up against more centralized polluting facilities such as coal mines and megalandfills. Second, laws that govern UOGD do little to alleviate these "spatial knowledge gaps" (Roberts and Langston 2008). In many states, such as Pennsylvania, companies are only required to notify immediately-adjacent property owners of proposed oil and gas wells (Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection 2016).…”

Section: Assessing the Risks Of Unconventional Oil And Gas Extractionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Civic Informatics of FracTracker Alliance: Working with Communities to Understand the Unconventional Oil and Gas Industry

2017

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Unconventional oil and gas extraction is fueling a wave of resource development often touted as a new era in US energy independence. However, assessing the true costs of extraction is made difficult by the vastness of the industry and lack of regulatory transparency. This paper addresses efforts to fill knowledge gaps taken up by civil society groups, where the resources produced in these efforts are used to make informed critiques of extraction processes and governance. We focus on one civil society organization, called FracTracker Alliance, which works to enhance public understanding by collecting, interpreting, and visualizing oil and gas data in broad partnerships. Drawing on the concepts of civic science, we suggest that the informational practices of civil society research organizations facilitate critical knowledge flows that we term "civic informatics." We offer three case studies illustrating how different characteristics of civic informatics enable public-minded research as well as build capacity for political mobilizations.Finally, we suggest that empirical studies of civic informatics and its facilitators offer insights for the study of "engaged" Science and Technologies Studies (STS) that seek to generate new models of science at the intersection of praxis and theory.

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“…2008; Iles 2007; Morello‐Frosch et al. 2009; Roberts and Langston 2008). Much of this work is rooted in the environmental health movement literature that has documented the rise of advocacy organizations concerned with polluted environments and “contested” illness (e.g., Brown 2007; Brown et al.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…But exposure to contaminants is universal and largely involuntary, as chemicals are present in air, water, food, soil, and indoor environments. Over the past several years, we have seen an increase in the sociological literature dealing with the body burden phenomenon (e.g., Altman et al 2008;Iles 2007;Morello-Frosch et al 2009;Roberts and Langston 2008). Much of this work is rooted in the environmental health movement literature that has documented the rise of advocacy organizations concerned with polluted environments and ''contested '' illness (e.g., Brown 2007;Cable, Shriver, and Mix 2008;Corburn 2005;Kroll-Smith, Brown, and Gunter 2000).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Media Framing of Body Burdens: Precautionary Consumption and the Individualization of Risk

MacKendrick

2010

Sociological Inquiry

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The accumulation of chemicals in human bodies and ecosystems represents a universal environmental and technological risk. As yet, little attention has been paid to media coverage of “body burdens,” the internal contaminant load carried by most organisms in the industrialized world. Using a sociology of risk perspective, this article analyzes the framing of chemical bioaccumulation in Canadian newspaper articles from 1986 to 2006. In later years, articles employ frames that reinforce an individualization of risk, where individuals are encouraged to avoid contaminants through “precautionary consumption” of green consumer goods. This shift in media discourse suggests that self‐protection is emerging as a key frame in the discourse of risk, one that provides a sense of individual control over chemical exposure and shifts the focus away from collective forms of protection from universal risks.

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Toxic Bodies/Toxic Environments: An Interdisciplinary Forum

Cited by 37 publications

References 29 publications

The optics of noncommunicable diseases: from lifestyle to environmental toxicity

The optics of noncommunicable diseases: from lifestyle to environmental toxicity

The Civic Informatics of FracTracker Alliance: Working with Communities to Understand the Unconventional Oil and Gas Industry

Media Framing of Body Burdens: Precautionary Consumption and the Individualization of Risk

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