Routine exposure: social practices and environmental health risks in the home

Wakefield-Rann, Rachael; Fam, Dena; Stewart, Susan

doi:10.1057/s41285-018-00084-8

Cited by 9 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…We are also concerned about this possibility, and suggest that strengthening the emerging dialogue between macro and micro scales of analysis enables critical tools that better politicize Anthropocene debates. In our past work, we have recognized that there are risks with using epigenetic change as a measure of harm – for example, it may reinforce a tendency to reduce social and environmental inequalities to molecular markers, lead to a stigmatization of vulnerable groups, or telescope social inequalities to individual bodies (Senier et al, 2017; Warin et al, 2011; Mansfield and Guthman 2015 ; Meloni, 2016; Mansfield 2017, 2018; Wakefield-Rann et al (2019). However, we believe that it is a matter of the granularity or coarseness of analysis here.…”

Section: Conclusion: Bringing Bodies Togethermentioning

confidence: 99%

Bodies of the Anthropocene: On the interactive plasticity of earth systems and biological organisms

Meloni

Wakefield-Rann

Mansfield

2021

The Anthropocene Review

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The Anthropocene literature has brought attention to the plasticity and porosity of Earth systems under the dramatic impact of human activities. Moving across scales of analysis, this paper focuses attention on anthropogenic effects at the micro-scale of genomic regulation, neuronal functioning and cellular activity. Building on expanding dialogues at the interface of Anthropocene science, biogeography, microbiology and ecotoxicology, we mobilize epigenetic findings to show increasing evidence of anthropogenic changes in plants, animals and human bodies. Treating human-induced changes at the macro-global and micro-biological scales as part of an intertwined process has implications for how these problems are conceptualised and addressed. While we are sceptics about major geo-bio-social syntheses, we believe that agile social-scientific tools can facilitate interaction across disciplines without denying unevenness, and differences. If rightly contextualized in broad anthropological and social science frameworks, biosocial work on epigenetics offers a compelling avenue to make detectable the ‘slow violence’ of everyday pollution, racism, inequalities and the disproportionate impact of the Anthropocene on the poor and vulnerable. Consolidating work at the Anthropocene/biology interface has potential to offer a richer and more complete picture of the present crisis at the macro and micro-scale alike.

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Section: Conclusion: Bringing Bodies Togethermentioning

confidence: 99%

Bodies of the Anthropocene: On the interactive plasticity of earth systems and biological organisms

Meloni

Wakefield-Rann

Mansfield

2021

The Anthropocene Review

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“…In cases when individuals and communities have been empowered to adapt their dwellings to enable low carbon lifestyles, one unforeseen consequence has been the alteration of the chemical and microbial environments within buildings. The sealing of doors and windows to reduce indoor-outdoor airflow and consequent energy loss can have the effect of trapping hazardous chemicals and pollutants indoors, as well as reducing the flow of outdoor microbes indoors; both of which are linked to a range of health conditions (Hamilton et al, 2015;Wakefield-Rann et al, 2018). A narrow framing of the desirable attributes of air around carbon can, therefore, mean that other crucial factors that affect human health and the environment have not only been excluded, but also exacerbated by their omission.…”

Section: Climate Change and Emerging Forms Of Vulnerabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Initiating a Transdisciplinary Conversation to Improve Indoor Ecologies

Wakefield-Rann¹,

Fam²

2018

HER

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Indoor spaces have not traditionally been considered the domain of human ecology. They have been the subject of cultural, architectural, and sociological inquiry, and more recently the site at which various pathogenic or toxic encounters may be studied; yet, these concerns have rarely been investigated as part of one unified and codependent ecology. This special issue aims to remedy this dislocation by beginning a conversation between a range of disciplinary perspectives concerned with the indoors. This ambition is not only linked to a desire to articulate and connect multiple interacting variables operative in indoor spaces, but also to address both a number of factors that are increasingly creating indoor environmental conditions that are suboptimal for human habitation, and the broader more-thanhuman ecosystems in which they are situated. Although certainly not exhaustive in scope, the research presented in this special issue provides an exemplary profile of situated knowledge that must form the basis of future, integrative, transdisciplinary research into indoor ecologies. Spanning design, architecture, social and human ecology, environmental psychology, sociology, mycology, biotechnology, spatial sciences, statistics, engineering, philosophy, and "lay" and experiential knowledge perspectives, this special issue uncovers a number of the challenges and fertile points of overlap across epistemological approaches and areas of concern within the indoors. The goal of this issue is to highlight the points of divergence, and, more crucially, the points of convergence from which a new transdisciplinary approach to indoor research can emerge.

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“…However, some practices, such as cleaning, have a more direct role in structuring a home's microecology, due primarily to the common use of products containing antimicrobials and other EDCs, and the frequency and ubiquity with which they are used (Halden et al, 2017;Sherriff et al, 2005). Some scholars (see Maller, 2018;Wakefield-Rann et al, 2018) have argued that common conceptualizations of materiality in theories of social practice do not sufficiently account for nuances in material agency. They consequently propose that elements of other more-thanhuman theories are integrated into investigations of practice to explore material agency in greater depth.…”

Section: Research Approach: Tracing Home Hygiene Practicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper adopts the term "microspecies" to help broaden its investigation of home hygiene to account for the complex interactions between microbes and other significant microentities, which influence health and disease outcomes (Wakefield-Rann et al, 2018). "Microspecies" include microbes (i.e., bacteria, archaea, protists, fungi, and other microscopic animals and plants), and active organic and inorganic chemicals that exist at a microscale (i.e., invisible to the human eye) in homes.…”

Section: Conceptualizing and Practicing Hygienementioning

confidence: 99%

“It’s Just a Never-Ending Battle”: The Role of Modern Hygiene Ideals and the Dynamics of Everyday Life in Constructing Indoor Ecologies

Wakefield-Rann¹,

Fam²,

Stewart³

2018

HER

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Recent research suggests that the greatest threat to children's health from home environments across much of the industrialized world may no longer be pathogenic microbes, but impoverished microbial communities and the chemicals used in everyday products, including those for cleaning. This paper proposes that concepts of hygiene should be updated, given this reorientation of harm. However, little research has been conducted, which a) integrates knowledge from the diverse disciplinary fields concerned with indoor environments (such as microbiology, chemistry, and design), and b) examines how individuals conceptualize and enact hygiene to create healthier indoor environments for their families, including the extent to which their practices achieve this.

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Routine exposure: social practices and environmental health risks in the home

Cited by 9 publications

References 69 publications

Bodies of the Anthropocene: On the interactive plasticity of earth systems and biological organisms

Bodies of the Anthropocene: On the interactive plasticity of earth systems and biological organisms

Initiating a Transdisciplinary Conversation to Improve Indoor Ecologies

“It’s Just a Never-Ending Battle”: The Role of Modern Hygiene Ideals and the Dynamics of Everyday Life in Constructing Indoor Ecologies

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