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Sociological Theories on Air Pollution: Between Environmental Justice and the Risk Society Approach

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Clinical Handbook of Air Pollution-Related Diseases

Abstract

Risk sociologists consider risks in contemporary society to be global, interconnected, and in large part unpredictable. According to Beck, the globalization of risks implies that individuals are exposed to the same level of risk (democratization of risks). On the other hand, the environmental justice perspective, though acknowledging the centrality of risk, underlines the correlation between socio-economic inequalities and exposure to air pollution. Also, deprived people are more vulnerable to air pollution because they often have worse health conditions compared with the upper class. Promoting the involvement of lay people in research, the environmental justice perspective proposes a ‘popular epidemiology’ in contrast with the dominant trends in epidemiological perspective. Moreover, for them individual interventions based on lifestyles changes are desirable but cannot solve the problem of health threats caused by air pollution. Sociology can provide a theoretical framework, evidence from empirical research and data for both institutional forms of prevention and social mobilization against sources of pollution.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice.

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Acknowledgements

While this article is the result of several discussions between the authors, Antonio Maturo has written the sections “Introduction”; “Social justice and air pollution” and its sub-sections; “Conclusions”; Veronica Moretti has written “Sociological theories and pollution” and “Risk approaches to air pollution”, enclosed the sub-sections.

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  1. Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Antonio Maturo & Veronica Moretti

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  1. Antonio Maturo
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  2. Veronica Moretti
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Correspondence to Antonio Maturo .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Alder Hey Children’s Hospital , Liverpool, United Kingdom

    Fabio Capello

  2. Scientific Director of Health Lab of GTechnology Foundation, Modena, Italy

    Antonio Vittorino Gaddi

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Maturo, A., Moretti, V. (2018). Sociological Theories on Air Pollution: Between Environmental Justice and the Risk Society Approach. In: Capello, F., Gaddi, A. (eds) Clinical Handbook of Air Pollution-Related Diseases. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62731-1_32

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62731-1_32

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