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The Exposome and the Social Sciences: The Case of Systemic Diseases

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Integrative Approaches in Environmental Health and Exposome Research

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Abstract

This chapter discusses the challenges of an epistemological pluralism. It assesses the tensions internal to the exposome as part of a longer history of epidemiology, and as opportunities to have the exposomic knowledge interact with the social sciences of health. This chapter looks specifically at the case of systemic diseases of (supposedly) “unknown causes”. Those diseases may indeed be studied as a “case”—in the meaning of “case” recommended by Passeron et Revel (2005), i.e. a door likely to open broad research avenues from an empirical narrow object and scale. From the case of systemic diseases, we examine how the bio-mechanistic approach to the causes of diseases does not exclude, on the contrary, the search for other avenues likely not only to improve the management of the patients by an interdisciplinary approach, but also to produce valuable outcomes about inequalities in health, for the own sake of the social sciences.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In the era of “Big Data” (and giving a very interesting definition of “Big Data” (Juarez et al. 2014, p. 12,874)), Juarez et al.’s position reminds us very closely the one defended before this sociotechnical era by (Susser et Susser 1996).

  2. 2.

    With a wink to the so-called shoe-leather epidemiology, which refers to a fieldwork intended to uncover health social determinants for populations and individuals. See for instance (Koo et Thacker 2010).

  3. 3.

    Matching controls with patients on sex, age range and tobacco consumption criteria.

  4. 4.

    ERC Advanced Grant project, directed by Paul-André Rosental, Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics, Sciences Po, Paris 2012–2017. Grant number ERC-2011-ADG_20110406, project ID 295,817.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Université Paris-Dauphine (PSL), Paris, France

    Catherine Cavalin

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  1. Catherine Cavalin
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Correspondence to Catherine Cavalin .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Philosophy Department, Jean Moulin University Lyon 3 and Institut de Recherches Philosophiques de Lyon, Lyon, France

    Élodie Giroux

  2. Institut d’histoire et de philosophie des sciences et des techniques (IHPST), CNRS and University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

    Francesca Merlin

  3. Human and Social Sciences Department, Centre Léon Bérard, Lyon, France

    Yohan Fayet

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Cavalin, C. (2023). The Exposome and the Social Sciences: The Case of Systemic Diseases. In: Giroux, É., Merlin, F., Fayet, Y. (eds) Integrative Approaches in Environmental Health and Exposome Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28432-8_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28432-8_9

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