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Contesting the science: public health knowledge and action in controversial land-use development

Elliott, Eva ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1583-2603, Harrop, Emily ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2820-0023 and Williams, Gareth Howard 2009. Contesting the science: public health knowledge and action in controversial land-use development. Presented at: 104th American Sociological Association conference, San Fransisco. USA, 8 - 11 August 2009.

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Abstract

Abstract: Protests by local citizens against what they perceive to be exposure to environmentally induced diseases and hazards have recently been of interest to social scientists. These protests have included mobilisations around the impact of landfill waste sites, opencast mines, chemical weapons and contaminated water on illnesses or diseases such as asthma, breast cancer, leukaemia and congenital birth defects. Brown (2007) highlights the way in which public protest has had an important historic role in identifying emerging disease clusters and in challenging the role, methods and values of science itself. This chapter builds on this literature through exploring two different forms of public protest against land developments in south Wales, UK, which were considered by local people to threaten public health. The first explores a long-term protest against a local landfill site; the second examines the use by local residents of university expertise in health impact assessment to assess the risks of an extension to an opencast coal mine. The paper discusses the implications for our understanding of knowledge and expertise in public contexts. We conclude by emphasising the importance of seeing knowledge about public health issues in the round; recognising that 'science' is often flawed and inadequate, that it does not ask the questions that are of importance to those most severely affected, and is very often used to exclude the legitimate and well-informed perspectives of local people.

Item Type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Date Type: Completion
Status: Unpublished
Schools: Cardiff Institute of Society and Health (CISHE)
Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Wales Institute of Social & Economic Research, Data & Methods (WISERD)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
Additional Information: related published book chapter Contesting the Science: Public Health Knowledge and Action in Controversial Land-Use Developments Eva Elliott, Emily Harrop, Gareth H. Williams Chapter:(p. 181 ) Chapter 12 Contesting the Science: Public Health Knowledge and Action in Controversial Land-Use DevelopmentsSource:Risk Communication and Public HealthAuthor(s): Eva Elliott, Emily Harrop, Gareth H. Williams DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562848.003.12 in Risk Communication and Public Health Peter Bennett, Kenneth Calman, Sarah Curtis, and Denis Fischbacher-Smith Print publication date: 2010 Print ISBN-13: 9780199562848 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: February 2010 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199562848.001.0001
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Last Modified: 05 Nov 2022 15:20
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/22897

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