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| "Response to Phil Brown's Paper : Qualitative Methods in Environmental Health Research" |
| by: Sheldon Krimsky, Tufts University (2003) |
| Published on: 11/15/2003 |
Phil Brown’s paper touches on a number of ethical and epistemological issues related to community environmental health research. Brown raises the question of the role of citizens in identifying causes of disease clusters. He acknowledges, rather candidly, the lack of disinterestedness among social scientists and epidemiologists who are investigating community health threats. This opens up the question of scientific objectivity in those studies where an investigator shows empathy toward a community’s suspicions. Brown also suggests that some sub disciplines share a collective bias against corporate polluters. If this is true than the traditional concept of “organized skepticism” proposed by the sociologist Robert Merton must be re-examined with regard to certain disciplinary groups. I begin my discussion with a discussion of the epistemological issues raised by the paper. |
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