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Environmental Factors in Health

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Handbook of Environmental Sociology

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Abstract

In this chapter we examine environmental sociology’s engagement with environmental health as a research topic and as a growing form of activism. We begin by providing a brief history of environmental illness and examine the ways in which government and industrial science have failed to protect human and environmental health. We then discuss the ways in which impacted community members and environmental health advocates have brought these issues to the attention of academics and the broader public. Next, we turn our attention to academic studies of contaminated communities, which formed the basis of early environmental sociology; scholarship on health social movements and other challenges to the dominant epidemiological paradigm; and more recent developments in exposure experience and contested illness. Finally, we discuss new research methods that involve researchers from multiple academic disciplines working with impacted communities. Putting all the above elements of research methods and sensibilities together, we arrive at a public sociology for environmental health, which represents a highly engaged approach to environmental concerns in which the needs of affected people and communities are placed in the primary position of importance. In the tradition of “public sociology” (Burawoy, Social Forces, 82(4):1603–1618; 2004), this type of research also seeks to inform debates and discussions outside of academia. We end the chapter with some concluding thoughts on environmental health and justice activism in the current era.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Elisabeth Wilder

  2. Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Phil Brown

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  1. Elisabeth Wilder
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  2. Phil Brown
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Correspondence to Phil Brown .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Solutions Journal, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Beth Schaefer Caniglia

  2. Department of Sociology and Environmental Studies Program, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Andrew Jorgenson

  3. Department of Sociology, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Stephanie A. Malin

  4. Department of Sociology and Natural Hazards Center, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Lori Peek

  5. Environmental Studies Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

    David N. Pellow

  6. Department of Sociology, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, USA

    Xiaorui Huang

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Wilder, E., Brown, P. (2021). Environmental Factors in Health. In: Schaefer Caniglia, B., Jorgenson, A., Malin, S.A., Peek, L., Pellow, D.N., Huang, X. (eds) Handbook of Environmental Sociology. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77712-8_12

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