Abstract:

We propose a novel conceptual approach to research on environmental exposures, the socio-exposome. This concept extends recent efforts, led mostly by environmental scientists and molecular epidemiologists, to measure environmental exposures as precisely as scientists now measure genes and gene expression. Advocates of this approach have nominally adopted a central concern of the social sciences – how to measure the environment and its effects – without a thorough engagement with social scientific theoretical and methodological expertise. This can result in a tendency to molecularize complex social phenomena and may limit the possibility of collective action to improve environmental conditions. Our concept of the socio-exposome highlights the importance of integrating sociological and environmental science approaches to assessing environmental exposures and social determinants of health. We argue that because environmental exposures are socio-political as well as biological phenomena, a new form of civic engagement and collective action is warranted to characterize and measure them; we call this ‘exposure citizenship.’ We propose a framework showing the levels of analysis embraced in the socio-exposome and suggest some sociomarkers and data sources that could capture these exposures.