Environmental health = human health. Posthumanism, pollution, policy.

1. Environmental health = human health. Posthumanism, pollution, policy. Nick J Fox Universities of Huddersfield and Sheffield @socnewmat

2. Introduction • Sociology and environment: an uneasy engagement? • Beyond nature/culture dualism. • Post-anthropocentrism and posthumanism. • The air pollution assemblage. • An ecological sociology. @socnewmat

3. Contradictory forces? • Are human health and environmental health potentially antagonistic? • How can human health and environmental health be complementary? • Should human or environmental health have priority? @socnewmat

4. Perspectives on health and air pollution • Human health is threatened by pollution. • Reducing air pollution can enhance health. • Improvements in health threaten the environment. • Initiatives can reduce the impact of health care on pollution. • Humans and the environment as part of a self-regulating system (‘Gaia’). @socnewmat

5. A posthuman alternative • Post-humanism acknowledges the capacities of human and non-human matter. • Matter assembles in unstable, unpredictable and continually fluctuating ways. • Focus not on systems and stability, but upon flux and becoming. • Consequences for how we conceptualise both ‘health’ and ‘environment’. @socnewmat

6. Post-humanism and ‘health’ • ‘Environment’ is no longer separate from bodies. • Humans are part of the environment. • All human and non-human matter can affect or be affected. • Environmental well-being now encompasses human health. • ‘Health’ is a capacity of a body to engage with its environment. • Use this to re-think policy on air pollution. @socnewmat

7. Air pollution and child health • Air pollution is a major public health issue. • Particular effects on child health. • WHO: reduce peak-hour traffic, encourage walking and cycling to reduce pollution and road accidents. • Examples: ban ‘school run’ car journeys; provide rapid public transport system, cycle lanes. Prüss-Üstün A, Corvalán C. (2006) Preventing disease through healthy environments. Towards an estimate of the environmental burden of disease. Geneva: World Health Organization. @socnewmat

8. A materialist conceptual toolkit • Analyse air pollution as an assemblage of disparate material elements. (human and non-human). • Trace how relations in the assemblage affect and are affected by each other. • Evaluate micropolitical patterns of social, economic and political power in the assemblage. • Identify conflicts between these affective flows. • How to engineer sustainability into the assemblage? @socnewmat

9. A traffic/air pollution assemblage cars – public transport – bicycles – roads – fossil fuels – renewable fuels – atmosphere - pollutants – children - schools – work places – shops – services – housing – workers –local employers – council leaders – urban planners – environmental campaigners –etc. @socnewmat

10. Affects in the assemblage • ‘employment’ flow that connects employers, workers, workplaces, wages, houses, capitalism; • ‘education’ flow between children, schools, teachers, homes, parents etc; • ‘transport’ flow of roads, modes of travel, fuel, airborne chemicals and particles, housing, schools, workplaces etc; • ‘climate’ flow of fossil fuels, industry and transport, the atmosphere, the sun etc. • ‘human health’ flow between environment and humans. These flows together produce the events associated with air pollution, including economic production, education, traffic congestion, poor air quality, climate change and negative health outcomes. @socnewmat

11. Micropolitics of the assemblage • How power flows through the assemblage. • development of a city environment that brings workplaces and workers into proximity; • economics and physical logistics of transport; • economics and politics of cheap energy; • democratic and technocratic processes in city planning. These power flows reveal contradictory objectives between economic prosperity and human health/well-being. @socnewmat

12. Addressing the contradictions • Do not treat air pollution in isolation. • Address contradictory forces in the assemblage. • Re-engineer interactions to foster human and non-human potential. • Build richness of capacities into flows (education, employment, climate, air/water quality). • Counter forces that constrain environmental potential. @socnewmat

13. A posthuman air pollution policy • Develop a sustainability policy that: • reduces carbon emissions; • enhances working conditions; • is energy-efficient; • enhances natural diversity; • Improves the city environment socially, psychologically and physically. • Improvements in health accrue as ‘side-effects’ of this re-engineering. @socnewmat

14. Conclusion: ecological sociology • Humans are part of the environment. • Human health linked intrinsically to environmental becoming. • Increase environmental possibilities by policies that: • Enhance the possibilities for all animate and inanimate entities, not just humans. • Avoid limiting environmental futures through human actions (e.g. pollution, climate change). • This suggests a distinctive, environmental approach to the sociology of air pollution. @socnewmat

15. Environmental health = human health. Posthumanism, pollution, policy. @socnewmat