Historique
Chapitre
Epidemiology as a model: processing data through a black box?
Auteur(s) :
PERETTI-WATEL, P.
Année
2011
Page(s) :
53-69
Langue(s) :
Anglais
ISBN :
978-1-4094-0543-6
Domaine :
Drogues illicites / Illicit drugs
Discipline :
EPI (Epidémiologie / Epidemiology)
Résumé :
In this chapter, Peretti-Watel specifically examines the implications of the epidemiological approach to drugs. He demonstrates that the multi-factor causal model, which undergirds epidemiology, has become a "black box" (Shim 2002, Latour 1995), in which debate between scientists has become "stabilized." This occurs because scientists all use the same tool box (statistical methods of risk-factor calculation). Consequently, the meaning, assumptions, or limitations of these tools and their underlying epistemology are rarely contested or examined. Instead, longer and longer lists of heterogeneous risk factors are seen as contributing to drug use, revealing a form of what Adorno (2000) referred to as "factualism": prioritizing prediction over understanding, and information over knowledge. This focus on numbers and risk feeds into atomistic understandings of drug issues, conceptions that are consistent with neo-liberal norms and culture of individualism, self-achievement, (more or less) rational actors, self-empowerment, individual autonomy and an underestimation of the role of socioeconomic and cultural factors, a point developed further by Bergeron in Chapter 16. The assumptions underpinning epidemiological approaches are significant not solely at the level of scientific understanding but also because these approaches have achieved significant currency in public debates and prevention campaigns. [From the book's introduction]
Affiliation :
Inserm, France
Cote :
L01616