Powerless Science?

Soraya Boudia is Professor of Sociology at Université Paris Descartes (Sorbonne Paris Cité). 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.

• List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction: Greatness and Misery of Science in a Toxic WorldSoraya Boudia and Nathalie JasPART I: KNOWLEDGE, EXPERTISE AND THE TRANSFORMATIONS IN REGULATORY SYSTEMSChapter 1. Precaution and the History of Endocrine DisruptorsNancy LangstonChapter 2. The Political Life of Mutagens: A History of the Ames TestAngela N. H. CreagerChapter 3. DES, Cancer and Endocrine Perturbation: Ways of Regulating, Chemical Risks and Public Expertise in the United StatesJean-Paul GaudillièreChapter 4. Managing Scientific and Political Uncertainty. Environmental Risk Assessment in an Historical PerspectiveSoraya BoudiaPART II: ACTIVISM AND NON-ACTIVISM: ALTERNATIVE USES OF KNOWLEDGEChapter 5. Work, Bodies, Militancy: the “Class Ecology” Debate in 1970s ItalyStefania BarcaChapter 6. What Kind of Knowledge is Needed about Toxicant- Related Health Issues? Some Lessons Drawn from the Seveso DioxinLaura CentemeriChapter 7. From Suspicious Illness to Policy Change in Petrochemical Regions: Popular Epidemiology, Science and the Law in the U.S. and ItalyBarbara AllenChapter 8. Guinea Pigs go to Court. Epidemiology and Class Actions in TaiwanPaul Jobin and Yu-Hwei TsengPART III: PUTTING KNOWLEDGE, IGNORANCE, AND REGULATIONN INTO PERSPECTIVEChapter 9. Reckless Laws, Contaminated People: Science Reveals Legal Shortcomings in Public Health ProtectionsCarl CranorChapter 10. Untangling Ignorance in Environmental Risk AssessmentScott Frickel and Michelle EdwardsChapter 11. Low Dose Toxicology: Narratives from the Science-Transcience InterfaceSheldon KrimskyChapter 12. Unruly Technologies and Fractured Oversight: Towards a Model for Chemical Control for the Twenty First CenturyJody A. RobertsList of ContributorsIndex

“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“The book will be of interest to the new wave of anthropological studies on toxic contamination and will open the door for researchers and practitioners to actively reimagine what a regulatory apparatus that is de-centered from science might look like.” · Medical Anthropology Quarterly“The editors of Powerless Science? were successful in overcoming the problem of disparate narratives, ever present in edited collections, especially those dealing with interdisciplinary themes. Although the book embraces different approaches… the diverse perspectives offer different faces of a common research object… [and] provides an extremely rich introduction… The book has also benefited from… the proven professional skills of the authors, all of whom are renowned scholars with successful careers in their respective perspectives on regulatory science.” · AMBIX“This volume makes a useful companion for  understanding the institutional histories and practices that assist in limiting or allowing, ignoring or acknowledging, toxic exposures.” · Medicine Anthropology Theory“…the empirical payload of the collection…is substantial. The book will be of interest to the new wave of anthropological studies on toxic contamination and will open the door for researchers and practitioners to actively reimagine what a regulatory apparatus that is de-centered from science might look like.” · Medical Anthropology Journal“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