Political ecology, ecological economics, and public health: interfaces for the sustainability of development and health promotion
01 Jan 2007-Cadernos De Saude Publica (Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sergio Arouca, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz)-Vol. 23
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus contributions from political ecology and ecological economics to the field of collective health with a view towards integrating the discussions around health promotion, socio-environmental sustainability, and development.
Abstract: This article proposes to focus contributions from political ecology and ecological economics to the field of collective health with a view towards integrating the discussions around health promotion, socio-environmental sustainability, and development. Ecological economics is a recent interdisciplinary field that combines economists and other professionals from the social, human, and life sciences. The field has developed new concepts and methodologies that seek to grasp the relationship between the economy and ecological and social processes such as social metabolism and metabolic profile, thereby interrelating economic, material, and energy flows and producing indicators and indexes for (un)sustainability. Meanwhile, political ecology approaches ecological issues and socio-environmental conflicts based on the economic and power dynamics characterizing modern societies. Collective health and the discussions on health promotion can expand our understanding of territory, communities, and the role of science and institutions based on the contributions of political ecology and ecological economics in analyzing development models and the distributive and socio-environmental conflicts generated by them.
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TL;DR: Contextual indicators of Sustainable Development for the places where the children live showed themselves to be associated with the child health outcome, indicating that equitable and sustainable social policies, based on inclusive health promotion strategies, need to be integrated into the children's life context.
9 citations
TL;DR: The article proposes a reinterpretation about the health crisis within a broader crisis of utopias and the need to reinvent social emancipation that can show us realistic paths of hope from the present.
Abstract: Resumo O artigo propoe uma leitura da crise da saude no interior de uma crise mais ampla das utopias e da necessidade de reinventarmos a emancipacao social que indique trilhas realistas de esperancas a partir do presente. Para isso propomos a articulacao de quatro tipos de justica: social, sanitaria, ambiental e cognitiva. As duas primeiras sao bem conhecidas do pensamento critico e da saude coletiva, e as duas ultimas ampliam o entendimento da crise em sua natureza civilizatoria, etica e planetaria, marcada pelas contradicoes e potencial destrutivo da modernidade eurocentrica, ocidental e capitalista. O social, na perspectiva assumida, e considerado indissociavel das dimensoes ecologicas, ontologicas e epistemologicas que marcarao os grandes embates na interface entre etica, politica, ciencia e transformacao social em tempos de acirramento das varias crises, surgimento de distopias e necessaria transicao civilizatoria. O artigo se apoia nas contribuicoes de tres campos do conhecimento: a saude coletiva, a ecologia politica e as abordagens pos-coloniais, em especial as epistemologias do Sul de Boaventura de Sousa Santos, em torno da reinvencao da emancipacao social. Ao final propomos breves reflexoes para que a saude coletiva produza alternativas sobre temas como desenvolvimento economico, cientifico e tecnologico, promocao, vigilância, atencao e cuidado.
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors seek to ascertain what hospital workers think about the ecologic debate, looking for opinions that may elicit a discussion about the development of responsible actions to be taken by this group in the context of hospital work.
Abstract: This study seeks to ascertain what hospital workers think about the ecologic debate, looking for opinions that may elicit a discussion about the development of responsible actions to be taken by this group in the context of hospital work. The theoretical benchmark used for this discussion is based on the Reflexive Modernization and the Risk Society concept proposed by contemporary sociologists. This involved qualitative research using case study strategy and it was carried out with hospital workers at a public institution. The data were collected using document analysis, field observation and individual and group interviews. The study revealed that hospital workers take a somewhat distant view in terms of the environmental issue, which is reflexively affected by the current ecological debate. This concept has the influence of specific factors in the context of hospital work. In conclusion, the importance of educational actions together with the workers was identified, in order to establish more responsible actions with respect to environmental preservation.
8 citations
01 Jan 2019
8 citations
01 Aug 2019
TL;DR: In this paper, a prevencao quaternaria (P4) articulacao conceitual orientadora da P4 is presented, which is crucial for a P4.
Abstract: A prevencao tem sido medicalizada gerando danos iatrogenicos frequentes. Isso demanda prevencao quaternaria (P4): evitar medicalizacao/intervencionismo desnecessarios e danos iatrogenicos correlatos. Apresentamos, neste artigo, uma articulacao conceitual orientadora da P4 na prevencao. Geoffrey Rose distinguiu entre medidas preventivas “redutivas” (reduzem riscos derivados da vida moderna, como sedentarismo e ultraprocessados na alimentacao) e “aditivas” (adicionam fatores artificiais protetores, como vacinacoes, rastreamentos, farmacos hipolipemiantes). O grande potencial de danos das medidas preventivas aditivas exige aplicacao sistematica do principio da precaucao. Este orienta que, havendo duvidas cientificas sobre danos potenciais significativos de uma atividade, o Estado deve ativamente evita-los, por meio de atribuicao do onus da prova de eficacia/seguranca da atividade aos proponentes, exploracao de alternativas inofensivas e aumento da participacao publica na decisao. Tal aplicacao, crucial para a P4 na prevencao, amiude nao ocorre em praticas preventivas de alta prevalencia e iatrogenia.
7 citations
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TL;DR: This paper argues that the central question becomes: who and what is responsible for population patterns of health, disease, and well-being, as manifested in present, past and changing social inequalities in health?
Abstract: In social epidemiology, to speak of theory is simultaneously to speak of society and biology. It is, I will argue, to speak of embodiment. At issue is how we literally incorporate, biologically, the world around us, a world in which we simultaneously are but one biological species among many—and one whose labour and ideas literally have transformed the face of this earth. To conceptualize and elucidate the myriad social and biological processes resulting in embodiment and its manifestation in populations' epidemiological profiles, we need theory. This is because theory helps us structure our ideas, so as to explain causal connections between specified phenomena within and across specified domains by using interrelated sets of ideas whose plausibility can be tested by human action and thought.1–3 Grappling with notions of causation, in turn, raises not only complex philosophical issues but also, in the case of social epidemiology, issues of accountability and agency: simply invoking abstract notions of ‘society’ and disembodied ‘genes’ will not suffice. Instead, the central question becomes: who and what is responsible for population patterns of health, disease, and well-being, as manifested in present, past and changing social inequalities in health?
1,719 citations
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16 Oct 1990
TL;DR: The Environmental Justice Movement: Survey Results as mentioned in this paper showed that 80% of the participants believed that environmental justice should be a priority issue in government policy making, and 75% of those believed that government should take environmental justice into account.
Abstract: * List of Tables and Illustrations * Preface * Acknowledgments * List of Acronyms * 1. Environmentalism and Social Justice * Race Versus Class in Spatial Location * The Theoretical Basis of Environmental Conflict * Translating Concern into Action * Environmentalism and Civil Rights * A Note on the Research Approach * 2. Race, Class, and the Politics of Place * Consequences of Uneven Development * Endangered Environs * Growing Black Militancy * Waste-Facility Siting Disparities * 3. Dispute Resolution and Toxics: Case Studies * Defining and Defending Against a Threat * Houston's Northwood Manor Neighborhood * West Dallas (Texas) * Institute (West Virginia) * Alsen (Louisiana) * Emelle-Sumter County (Alabama) * Summary of Disputes and Resolutions * 4. The Environmental Justice Movement: Survey Results * Rating of Environmental Problems * Siting Conflict and the Question of Equity * Economic Versus Environmental Trade-Offs * Environmental Activism * 5. Environmental Racism Revisited * The Role of Racism * Unequal Protection * Environmental Apartheid * Louisiana as "Paradise" Lost * From American Dream to Nightmare * 6. Environmental Justice as a Working Model * Waiting for Government Action * Impetus for Changing the System * Executive Order 12898 * Remedying Past Inequities * A Model Environmental Justice Framework * Winning at the Grass Roots * Relocation from "Mount Dioxin," * Citizens Against Nuclear Trash Chalk Up Major Victory * Corporate Welfare and Environmental Racism: The Case of Shintech * Conclusion * 7. Action Strategies for the Twenty-First Century * Lessons Learned * Mobilizing the Grass Roots * Toward the Politics of Inclusion * Conclusion * Notes * Selected Bibliography * Appendix: Resources and Contacts * Index
1,624 citations
TL;DR: A review of the earlier intellectual background of societal metabolism in terms of material and substance flows can be found in this article, followed by an integrated discussion of some of the major conceptual and methodological properties of MFA, with a particular focus on the field of bulk materials flows on a national level.
Abstract: Summary
“Societal metabolism” provides the appropriate conceptual basis for the rapidly growing development and analylical and policy interest in materials flow analysis (MFA). Following the review of the earlier intellectual background of societal metabolism in the first installment of this two-part article, this paper focuses on the current state of the art by examining more recent research referring t o societal metabolism in terms of material and substance flows. An operational classification of the literature according to frame of reference (socioeconomic system, ecosystem), system level (global, national, regional, functional, temporal), and types of flows under consideration (materials, energy, substances) highlights some of its characteristic features. There follows an integrated discussion of some of the major conceptual and methodological properties of MFA, with a particular focus on the field of bulk materials flows on a national level, comparing the major empirical results. Finally, the theoretical stringency research productivity, and political relevance of the MFA-related studies are assessed.
672 citations
TL;DR: This work portrays these systems as Self-Organizing Holarchic Open (SOHO) systems and interpret their behaviours and structures with reference to non-equilibrium thermodynamics: holons, propensities and canons; and information and attractors.
491 citations