Exposed Science: Genes, the Environment, and the Politics of Population Health
Sara Shostak
Abstract
At the center of Defining Vulnerabilitiesare the interlinked puzzles of why and how environmental health scientists have rallied around research on gene-environment interaction. Defining Vulnerabilities uses these efforts to molecularizeenvironmental health science as an analytic leverthat reveals important dimensions of the structure of the field of environmental health science;its relationships with other fields; its central institutions; and the commitments, practices, and strategies of those working within it. The central argument is that scientists’ perceptions of and responses to the str ... More
At the center of Defining Vulnerabilitiesare the interlinked puzzles of why and how environmental health scientists have rallied around research on gene-environment interaction. Defining Vulnerabilities uses these efforts to molecularizeenvironmental health science as an analytic leverthat reveals important dimensions of the structure of the field of environmental health science;its relationships with other fields; its central institutions; and the commitments, practices, and strategies of those working within it. The central argument is that scientists’ perceptions of and responses to the structural vulnerabilities of the field of environmental health sciences have both intended and unintended consequences for what we know about the somaticvulnerabilities of our bodies to environmental exposures. Drawing on interviews with scientists, policy makers, and environmental justice activists, Defining Vulnerabilities illuminates key challenges to environmental justice and population health in the twenty-first century
Keywords:
environmental health science,
gene-environment interaction,
structural vulnerabilities,
fields,
institutions,
environmental exposures,
environmental justice,
population health
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520275171 |
Published to California Scholarship Online: January 2017 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520275171.001.0001 |