TASK 2
Modes of integration between life and social sciences

This task aims, first, at exploring possible modes of integration (e.g., at the level of vocabulary and concepts, in terms of reduction between models, by building integrative approaches, etc.) of the various ways the environment and environmentally induced diseases are studied across life and social sciences; second, at evaluating under which conditions they would bring about some epistemic and/or pragmatic gain, if any. 

 Questions: Is it possible to end up with a unique conception and metrics of the environment, common to both life and social sciences involved in the study of human health and disease? Or, on the contrary, their respective researches on this topic are embedded in incompatible epistemological frameworks, adapted to specific scales of investigation? Is a form of integration between the various representations of the environment across life and social sciences possible and, in the same way, between the various explanatory models of the environmental origin of health and disease? And if a form of integration was possible, would it be suitable? What would be the gain, both epistemic and pragmatic, of a common view of the environment and of a common approach to the study of environmentally induced diseases? Would this allow improving the way the environment is measured, our knowledge about its causal role in the origin of health and disease, and so our ability to prevent and treat environmentally induced illness? Or a common view would rather impede each distinctive approach to produce the specific knowledge useful at its own scale of analysis?