Enumerating invisibility, humanizing numbers : public health and the production of inequities 1948-1974
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- "Enumerating Invisibility, Humanizing Numbers: Public Health and the Production of Inequities 1938-1974" is directed at answering one question: Why in spite of intensive study that has resulted in a wealth of numerical and statistical information on public health does the San Joaquin Valley and the residents therein remain, among one of the most underfunded, overlooked, impoverished and unhealthy regions? Through an examination of historical materials--surveys, reports, occupational surveillance, and decision making--this dissertation seeks to better understand how data and policy, through the social processes of classification and quantification, may have contributed to the production of inequities in the San Joaquin Valley. There are few studies to date that systematically examine the relationship between knowledge and numbers and even fewer that address the concerns of frequently overlooked communities of agricultural laborers in the San Joaquin Valley. This dissertation begins to fill these gaps by reviewing a diverse array of source material to trace how institutions counted and measured agricultural laborers, how the institutions shaped these counting practices, and how numbers shaped policies. Given that institutional identities and strategies of governance are at stake in the production of these numbers, the story of agricultural laborers their health, social, and scientific visibility must be told alongside the stories of state bureaucracies. In tracing how institutions counted and measured agricultural laborers, how the institutions shaped these counting practices, how numbers shaped policies and decisions, there is an opportunity to understand historically the potential consequences of these counting practices. Together they reveal how institutional identities contributed to the making of public health data--its production, content and interpretation. This data, meant to reveal patterns of disease and improve public health, has paradoxically played a role in concentrating health inequities in the San Joaquin Valley because it has often made invisible the relationships between material deprivation and health or the environment and health. This dissertation does not advocate that we cease to use numbers in science and in policy. Rather, it is meant to recognize that every system of data collection and surveillance, regardless of the institution producing the data, is subjective and is shaped by particular values that have material consequences on populations As a result, the analysis intends to render numbers and their production more transparent and therefore open to critical analysis, and to provoke reflection on how the human elements- history, culture, and experiences --can explain the inequities that data alone can conceal.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2010 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Ramirez, Sarah Mercedes |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Modern Thought and Literature. |
| Primary advisor | White, Richard |
| Thesis advisor | White, Richard |
| Thesis advisor | De Genova, Nicholas |
| Thesis advisor | Kohrman, Matthew, 1964- |
| Advisor | De Genova, Nicholas |
| Advisor | Kohrman, Matthew, 1964- |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Sarah Mercedes Ramirez. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Modern Thought and Literature. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2010 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2010 by Sarah Mercedes Ramirez
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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