Powerless Science?

Science and Politics in a Toxic World
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-78533-198-5
Verlag: Berghahn Books

Buch, Englisch, Band 2, 290 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 427 g

Reihe: Environment in History: International Perspectives

In spite of decades of research on toxicants, along with the growing role of scientific expertise in public policy and the unprecedented rise in the number of national and international institutions dealing with environmental health issues, problems surrounding contaminants and their effects on health have never appeared so important, sometimes to the point of appearing insurmountable. This calls for a reconsideration of the roles of scientific knowledge and expertise in the definition and management of toxic issues, which this book seeks to do. It looks at complex historical, social, and political dynamics, made up of public controversies, environmental and health crises, economic interests, and political responses, and demonstrates how and to what extent scientific knowledge about toxicants has been caught between scientific, economic, and political imperatives.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Boudia, Soraya

Jas, Nathalie

Fachgebiete

• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Denkansätze und Ideologie der Umweltschützer

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Figures

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Greatness and Misery of Science in a Toxic World

Soraya Boudia and Nathalie Jas

PART I : KNOWLEDGE, EXPERTISE AND THE TRANSFORMATIONS IN REGULATORY SYSTEMS

Chapter 1. Precaution and the History of Endocrine Disruptors

Nancy Langston

Chapter 2. The Political Life of Mutagens: A History of the Ames Test

Angela N. H. Creager

Chapter 3. DES, Cancer and Endocrine Perturbation: Ways of Regulating, Chemical Risks and Public Expertise in the United States

Jean-Paul Gaudillière

Chapter 4. Managing Scientific and Political Uncertainty. Environmental Risk Assessment in an Historical Perspective

Soraya Boudia

PART II : ACTIVISM AND NON-ACTIVISM: ALTERNATIVE USES OF KNOWLEDGE

Chapter 5. Work, Bodies, Militancy: the “Class Ecology” Debate in 1970s Italy

Stefania Barca

Chapter 6. What Kind of Knowledge is Needed about Toxicant- Related Health Issues? Some Lessons Drawn from the Seveso Dioxin

Laura Centemeri

Chapter 7. From Suspicious Illness to Policy Change in Petrochemical Regions: Popular Epidemiology, Science and the Law in the U.S. and Italy

Barbara Allen

Chapter 8. Guinea Pigs go to Court. Epidemiology and Class Actions in Taiwan

Paul Jobin and Yu-Hwei Tseng

PART III: PUTTING KNOWLEDGE, IGNORANCE, AND REGULATIONN INTO PERSPECTIVE

Chapter 9. Reckless Laws, Contaminated People: Science Reveals Legal Shortcomings in Public Health Protections

Carl Cranor

Chapter 10. Untangling Ignorance in Environmental Risk Assessment

Scott Frickel and Michelle Edwards

Chapter 11. Low Dose Toxicology: Narratives from the Science-Transcience Interface

Sheldon Krimsky

Chapter 12. Unruly Technologies and Fractured Oversight: Towards a Model for Chemical Control for the Twenty First Century

Jody A. Roberts

List of Contributors

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jas, Nathalie
Nathalie Jas is a Senior Researcher at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA). A historian and a STS scholar, her scholarly work analyses the intensification of agriculture and its social, environmental, and health effects. She has co-edited a special issue of History and Technology, “Risk and risk Society in Historical Perspective” (2007), and Toxicants, Health and Regulations Since 1945 (Pickering & Chatto, 2013), both with Soraya Boudia.

Boudia, Soraya
Soraya Boudia is Professor of Sociology at Université Paris Descartes (Sorbonne Paris Cité). Her scholarly work focuses on the transnational government of technological and health environmental risks. She has co-authored a special issue of History and Technology, “Risk and risk Society in Historical Perspective” (2007), and Toxicants, Health and Regulations Since 1945 (Pickering & Chatto, 2013), both with Nathalie Jas.

Soraya Boudia is Professor of Sociology at Université Paris Descartes (Sorbonne Paris Cité). Her scholarly work focuses on the transnational government of technological and health environmental risks. She has co-authored a special issue of History and Technology, “Risk and risk Society in Historical Perspective” (2007), and Toxicants, Health and Regulations Since 1945 (Pickering & Chatto, 2013), both with Nathalie Jas.