Overview
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.
Full Product Details
Author: Soraya Boudia ,
Nathalie Jas
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Imprint: Berghahn Books
Volume: 2
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 1.50cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.395kg
ISBN: 9781785331985
ISBN 10: 1785331981
Pages: 290
Publication Date: 01 January 2016
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
General/trade
,
Professional & Vocational
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
Each chapter is written by an authority on the topic and contains primary bibliographic sources. Overall, the scientific content is accurate and free of obvious partiality. Choice The editors did a heroic job of assembling and connecting a group of articles from contributors active in interdisciplinary research and studies. They span multiple disciplines (sociology, history, philosophy, economics, and political science), assorted methodologies, different time frames, venues, and geographies... In summary, the absence of knowledge has powerfully shaped the history and social organization of our toxic world. And for this reason, Powerless Science? merits reading and reflective rereading. International Social Science Review
Each chapter is written by an authority on the topic and contains primary bibliographic sources. Overall, the scientific content is accurate and free of obvious partiality. * Choice This is an innovative, very well organized and overall well written book on one of the most pressing issues of today's society: the way chemicals contaminate the environment, and how we deal with it... most of the chapters cleverly combine the case study approach with universal features. It is surprising how well this works, both in the chapters and in the book at large. * Carsten Reinhardt, CEO and President of the Chemical Heritage Foundation (Philadelphia)
Author Information
Soraya Boudia is Professor of Sociology at Universite Paris Descartes (Sorbonne Paris Cite). 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.
