Skip to main content

The Personal Is Scientific, the Scientific Is Political: The Public Paradigm of the Environmental Breast Cancer Movement

Sociological Forum volume 18, pages 545–576 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of “boundary movements” to characterize the distinctive growth and strategies of movements involving citizen/science alliances to contend with environmentally related illnesses. This concept is applied to a case study of the environmental breast cancer movement, which has induced changes in treatment options and public perception of breast cancer. Since the early 1990s, a segment of this movement has consistently criticized the traditional paradigms governing research, the epistemology of breast cancer, and popular understandings. Against the traditional focus on genetics, lifestyles, and personal responsibility, this segment's broader messages stress environmental causation and women's participation in science and politics.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

  • Anglin, Mary K. 1997 “Working from the inside out: Implications of breast cancer activism for biomedical policies and practices.” Social Science and Medicine 44:1403-1415.

    Google Scholar 

  • American Cancer Society 2002 Cancer Facts and Figures 2002. Washington, DC: American Cancer Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aschengrau, A., D. Ozonoff, R. Vezina, T. Heeren, and Y. Zhang 1996 “Cancer risk and residential proximity to cranberry bog cultivation in Massachusetts.” American Journal of Public Health 86:1289-1296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brenner, Barbara 2000 “The breast cancer epidemic.” Presentation at American Public Health Association Conference, Boston, MA, November 13.

  • Brown, Phil, Stephen Zavestoski, Sabrina McCormick, Brian Mayer, Rachel Morello-Frosch, and Rebecca Gasior 2002 “Health social movements: Uncharted territory in social movement research.” Presentation at ASA Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section conference, Notre Dame, IN, August 15.

  • Clarke, Adele 2001 “Negotiating new relationships again and again: U.S. women's health movements and (bio)medicine.” Presentation at Annual Meeting of Society for the Social Study of Science, Cambridge, MA, November.

  • Clarke, Adele E., Jennifer R. Fishman, Jennifer Ruth Fosket, Laura Mamo, and Janet K. Shim 2000 “Technoscience and the new biomedicalization: Western roots, global rhizomes.” Sciences Sociales et Santé 18(2):11-42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, Devra Lee, and H. Leon Bradlow 1995 “Can environmental estrogens cause breast cancer?” Scientific American October:166-172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickersin, Kay, Lundy Braun, Margaret Mead, Robert Millikan, Anna Wu, Jennifer Pietenpol, Susan Troyan, Benjamin Anderson, and Frances Visco 2001 “Development and implementation of a science training course for breast cancer activists: Project LEAD (leadership, education and advocacy development).” Health Expectations 4:213-220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dorgan J., John Brock, Nathaniel Rothman, Larry Needham, and Rosetta Miller 1999 “Serum organochlorine pesticides and PCBs and breast cancer risk: Results from a prospective analysis.” Cancer Causes and Control 10:1-11.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, Steven 1998 Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Epstein, Steven 2001 “U.S. AIDS activism and the question of epistemological radicalism.” Presentation at Annual Meeting of Society for the Social Study of Science, Cambridge, MA, November.

  • Ferguson, Susan J., and Anne S. Kasper 2000 “Living with breast cancer.” In Anne S. Kasper and Susan J. Ferguson (eds.), Breast Cancer: Society Shapes an Epidemic: 5-22. New York: St. Martin's.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fishman, Jennifer 2000 “Assessing breast cancer: Risk, science and environmental activism in an 'at risk' community.” In Laura K. Potts (ed.), Ideologies of Breast Cancer: Feminist Perspectives: 181-204. New York: St. Martin's.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guttes, S., K. Failing, K. Neumann, J. Kleinstein, S. Georgii, and H. Brunn 1998 “Chlororganic pesticides and polychlorinated biphenyls in breast tissue of women with benign and malignant breast disease.” Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology 35(1):140-147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hoyer, A. P., T. Jorgensen, J. W. Brock, and P. Grandjean 2000 “Organochlorine exposure and breast cancer survival.” Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 53(3):323-330.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, David and Karl T. Kelsey 1993 “Pesticide Residues and Breast Cancer: The Harvest of the Silent Spring?” Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

  • Hunter, David J., Susan Hankinson, Francine Laden, Graham Colditz, Joanne Manson, Walter Willett, Frank Speizer, and Mary S. Wolff 1997 “Plasma organochlorine levels and the risk of breast cancer.” New England Journal of Medicine 337:1253-1258.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kant, A. K., A. Schatzkin, B. I. Graubard, and C. Schairer 2000 “A prospective study of diet quality and mortality in women.” Journal of the American Medical Association 283(16):2109-2115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klawiter, Maren 1999 “Racing for the cure, walking women, and toxic touring: Mapping cultures of action within the Bay Area terrain of breast cancer.” Social Problems 29(3):104-127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klawiter, Maren 2001 “Breast cancer activism in the U.S.: Diverse perspectives.” Presentation at Annual Meeting of Society for the Social Study of Science, Cambridge, MA, November.

  • Krimsky, Sheldon 2000 Hormonal Chaos: The Scientific and Social Origins of the Endocrine Disrupter Hypothesis. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Laraña, E., H. Johnston, and J. R. Gusfield 1994 New Social Movements: From Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichtenstein, P., N. Holm, P. K. Verkasalo, A. Iliadou, J. Kaprio, M. Koskenvuo, E. Pukkala, A. Skytthe, and K. Hemminki 2000 “Environmental and heritable factors in the causation of cancer—Analyses of cohorts of twins from Sweden, Denmark, and Finland.” New England Journal of Medicine: 343:78-85.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, David, and Nancy Whittier 1994 “Social movement spillover.” Social Problems 41:277-298.

    Google Scholar 

  • Myhre, Jennifer 2001 “Contemporary breast cancer activism in the United States.” Presentation at Annual Meeting of Society for the Social Study of Science, Cambridge, MA, November.

  • Raffensperger, Carolyn, and Joel Tickner (eds.) 1999 Protecting Public Health and the Environment: Implementing the Precautionary Principle. Washington, DC: Island Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ray, Raka 1999 Fields of Protest: Women's Movements in India. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reiss, Joan Reinhardt, and Andrea Ravinett Martin 2000 “Breast cancer 2000: An update on the facts, figures and issues.” San Francisco: The Breast Cancer Fund.

  • Robbins, Anthony S., Sonia Brescianni, and Jennifer Kelsey 1997 “Regional differences in known risk factors and the higher incidence of breast cancer in San Francisco.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 89:960-964.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruzek, Sheryl Burt, Virginia L. Olesen, and Adele Clarke (eds.) 1997 Women's Health: Complexities and Differences. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silent Spring Institute 1998 The Cape Cod Breast Cancer and Environment Study: Results of the First Three Years of Study. Newton, MA: Silent Spring Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Star, Susan Leigh, and James R. Griesemer 1989 “Institutional ecology, 'translations' and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39.” Social Studies of Science 19:1907-1939.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, H. J. 1992 “Effect of amount and type of exercise on experimentally induced breast cancer.” Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology 322:61-71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weisman, Carol S. 1998 Women's Health Care: Activist Traditions and Institutional Change. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, Dee W., Sally Glaser, and Angela Witt Prehn 1998 Status of Breast Cancer Research in the San Francisco Bay Area. Union City, CA. Northern California Cancer Center.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolff, Mary S., Paolo G. Toniolo, Eric W. Lee, Marilyn Rivera, and Neil Dublin 1993 “Blood levels of organochlorine residues and risk of breast cancer.” Journal of the National Cancer Institute 85:648-652.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zones, Jane S. 2000 “Profits from pain: The political economy of breast cancer.” In Anne S. Kasper and Susan J. Ferguson (eds.), Breast Cancer: Society Shapes an Epidemic: 119-51. New York: St. Martin's.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Brown University, Box 1916, Providence, Rhode Island, 02912

    Sabrina McCormick & Phil Brown

  2. Department of Sociology, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, California, 94117-1080

    Stephen Zavestoski

Authors
  1. Sabrina McCormick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Phil Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Stephen Zavestoski
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sabrina McCormick.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

McCormick, S., Brown, P. & Zavestoski, S. The Personal Is Scientific, the Scientific Is Political: The Public Paradigm of the Environmental Breast Cancer Movement. Sociological Forum 18, 545–576 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SOFO.0000003003.00251.2f

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SOFO.0000003003.00251.2f

  • social movements
  • environment
  • health
  • boundary movement