Combining Social Science and Environmental Health Research for Community Engagement

Alissa Cordner, Grace Poudrier, Jesse DiValli and Phil Brown
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Alissa Cordner: Sociology Department, Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA 99362, USA
Grace Poudrier: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Jesse DiValli: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Phil Brown: Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 18, 1-16

Abstract: Social science-environmental health (SS-EH) research takes many structural forms and contributes to a wide variety of topical areas. In this article we discuss the general nature of SS-EH contributions and offer a new typology of SS-EH practice that situates this type of research in a larger transdisciplinary sensibility: (1) environmental health science influenced by social science; (2) social science studies of environmental health; and (3) social science-environmental health collaborations. We describe examples from our own and others’ work and we discuss the central role that research centers, training programs, and conferences play in furthering SS-EH research. We argue that the third form of SS-EH research, SS-EH collaborations, offers the greatest potential for improving public and environmental health, though such collaborations come with important challenges and demand constant reflexivity on the part of researchers.

Keywords: social science-environmental health collaboration; community-based participatory research; community-engaged research; civic science; environmental justice; ethnography; chemical legacy; Superfund (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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