Introducing the Microbes and Social Equity Working Group: Considering the Microbial Components of Social, Environmental, and Health Justice
ABSTRACT
MICROCOSMS OF SOCIAL EQUITY
As an anthropologist,…what I love about the microbiome is that it brings together social intimacies of life with our biological selves in ways that show us that those two things are inextricably entangled.—Amber Benezra, The Microbes and Social Equity spring 2021 seminar series, virtual, 10 March 2021, https://video.maine.edu/media/The+Global+MicrobiomeA+microbes+and+public+health+beyond+biology/1_nyje1v0b
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Biopolitics | The forms of political power concerned with the scientific management of biological processes and population dynamics of human, animal, and microbial life. Biopolitical resources are the processes managed through the scientific and administrative attempts to define, predict, or control human or non-human life, health, productivity, reproduction, and populations. See references 73 and 153. |
Environmental justice | Equitable treatment and meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development and implementation of environmental policies and practices. Equal access to environmental risks and benefits. See reference 145. |
Epistemology | The theory of knowledge and the differentiation of belief from opinion. |
Exposomics | The study of collective microbial and chemical exposures over time. See reference 100. |
Intersectionality | The idea that identities, including, but not limited to, race, gender identity, ability, sexuality, and socioeconomic status, overlap in individuals, an acknowledgement that is required to bring social justice to the microbiome. In addition to referring to overlapping (nonadditive) identities, intersectionality refers to interlocking systems of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, capitalism, ableism). See references 154, 155, and 162. |
Microbial diversity | A diverse community contains more “types” of microorganisms and is analyzed by examining the number of types (i.e., species, strains, or functions) as well as their abundances and distributions in a host population or habitat. |
Microbiome | The collection of microorganisms, which may include bacteria, archaea, fungi and other microbial eukaryotes (protists), and viruses, in a given habitat or host and their genomes, which are often used to characterize the collective organismal diversity and functional capacity of that community. See reference 147. |
Neoliberalism | A set of political-economical and ideological principles and policies based on the view that every individual is an equal economic and social actor in a society best regulated by the “free” market. Its spread has depended upon a reconstitution of state powers such that privatization, finance, and market processes are emphasized. See reference 148. |
Ontogeny | All physiological, developmental, and phenomenological events occurring during the processes underlying biological organization across an agent’s lifetime. |
Social equity | The concept that additional barriers exist for certain social groups that restrict access to public resources because of implicit or explicit biases and the active support of social policy, viewpoints, and public infrastructure that promote access to public resources in a way that dismantles these additional barriers. See reference 149. |
Social determinants of health | The living, working, and local environmental conditions around a person that affect their health, their risk of harm, and health outcomes following medical interventions. See reference 150. |
Social justice | The concept that wealth, economic opportunities, and financial privileges should be equitably distributed or accessible within a society. The practices of legal policy and law that facilitate more equitable distribution of economic opportunity when they are not. |
Spatial justice | The concept that socially valued resources, such as natural and built environmental (i.e., infrastructure) resources, are not equitably distributed or accessible within a society. The practices of social and legal policy that facilitate equitable access to important resources. See reference 151. |
Sustainability | The state in which a system is able to function with little-to-no additional outside inputs or with little-to-no waste. |
Transdisciplinary research | Research that brings together different disciplinary perspectives to forge a new, synthetic field or framework, as opposed to interdisciplinary research, which brings together different disciplinary perspectives while keeping them distinct from one another. |
Group Mission Statement.
MANY INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS CREATED A COMMUNITY
A Call to Collaboration.
FOSTERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF RESEARCHERS
In many global contexts, there is an epistemological divide between social and “other” sciences. MSE has the potential to offer a diverse—yet unifying—ground for transdisciplinary efforts.—Francisco J. Parada, MSE Working Group writing session, 2021
A Call to Integrated Curricula.
IDENTIFYING FUTURE RESEARCH
A Call to Creative Design.
A Call to Action.
To name a thing is to call it into existence, to give it agency. Today, we are named. Today, we become agents of change.—Suzanne L. Ishaq, MSE Working Group writing session, 2021
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
Information & Contributors
Information
Published In

Copyright
History
Peer Review History
Keywords
Contributors
Editor
Reviewer
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Note:
- For recently published articles, the TOTAL download count will appear as zero until a new month starts.
- There is a 3- to 4-day delay in article usage, so article usage will not appear immediately after publication.
- Citation counts come from the Crossref Cited by service.
Citations
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. For an editable text file, please select Medlars format which will download as a .txt file. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.