The People’s Social Epi Project: PDX with Ryan Petteway

In this episode of PDXPLORES, Ryan J. Petteway, Associate Professor at the Oregon Health & Science University-Portland State University School of Public Health, discusses the research behind The People\u27s Social Epi Project: PDX. Providing a counternarrative to the settler-colonial and racial capitalist practices of traditional epidemiological research on health inequities, Petteway\u27s PSEP: PDX initiative is a portfolio of three projects centering around youth-led participatory research, music, and poetry. PSEP: PDX seeks to center the margins\u27\u27 to advance health and epistemic justice. Click on the Download button to access the audio transcript

Towards a People’s Social Epidemiology: Envisioning a More Inclusive and Equitable Future for Social Epi Research and Practice in the 21st Century

Social epidemiology has made critical contributions to understanding population health. However, translation of social epidemiology science into action remains a challenge, raising concerns about the impacts of the field beyond academia. With so much focus on issues related to social position, discrimination, racism, power, and privilege, there has been surprisingly little deliberation about the extent and value of social inclusion and equity within the field itself. Indeed, the challenge of translation/action might be more readily met through re-envisioning the role of the people within the research/practice enterprise—reimagining what “social” could, or even should, mean for the future of the field. A potential path forward rests at the nexus of social epidemiology, community-based participatory research (CBPR), and information and communication technology (ICT). Here, we draw from social epidemiology, CBPR, and ICT literatures to introduce A People’s Social Epi—a multi-tiered framework for guiding social epidemiology in becoming more inclusive, equitable, and actionable for 21st century practice. In presenting this framework, we suggest the value of taking participatory, collaborative approaches anchored in CBPR and ICT principles and technological affordances—especially within the context of place-based and environmental research. We believe that such approaches present opportunities to create a social epidemiology that is of, with, and by the people—not simply about them. In this spirit, we suggest 10 ICT tools to “socialize” social epidemiology and outline 10 ways to move towards A People’s Social Epi in practice

Adjustment

The adult spine, aka backbone, is composed of 24 segments. Separately, each segment is incapable of animating our bodies. Communities of color, low-income communities, and other marginalized groups represent the backbone of the health equity research enterprise-it literally cannot exist without our bodies and what they are subjected to in the face of structural inequality. And more often than not, researchers believe they can break our bodies into discrete segments and somehow animate a body of literature capable of healing a whole us. This poem, as counternarrative and enactment of public health critical race praxis principles of voice and disciplinary self-critique , engages the spine as metaphor to name and render visible the epistemic and symbolic violences that prop up public health\u27s body of evidence/knowledge. In doing so, it challenges the field\u27s dominant knowledge production paradigm (e.g. positivist reductionism), and draws attention to the settlercolonial, racial-capitalist, and extractivist logics of racial and health equity discourses dominated by narratives produced by mostly White scholars and health equity tourists , often using complex statistical techniques to complete secondary quantitative analyses about health in communities they\u27ve never stepped a single foot in. Under this paradigm, scores of researchers/practitioners are led to believe that they can somehow come to know us via variables and models alone. This poem suggests that-more than anything else-this model of practice is what\u27s most in need of adjustment, and warrants a greater degree of ethical scrutiny than historically/presently afforded. To view the original version of this poem, see the supplemental material section of this article online

Towards a people's social epidemiology: An intergenerational study of place, embodiment, & health via participatory action research with residents of public housing

Social Epidemiology has made critical contributions to understanding health inequities. However, translation of social epidemiology science into meaningful and timely action remains a challenge. With so much focus within the field on issues like social position, discrimination, racism, power, and privilege, there has been surprisingly little deliberation about the extent and value of social inclusion and equity within the field itself, and how the challenge of translation might be more readily met through re-envisioning the role of the people in the research enterprise—reimagining what “social” could, or even should, mean for the future of the field. Place-health research represents a particularly promising subfield within which to emphasize these principles, especially within the context of public housing. Thus, the overall aim for my dissertation work was to conduct research at the nexus of public health and public housing by integrating participatory research methods and information communication technologies (ICTs) to democratize the research process and facilitate local action. In this spirit, my work develops, introduces, and field-tests 3 interrelated and nested concepts that, in application, represent a model for inclusive and equitable social epidemiology: A People’s Social Epidemiology, the Placescape, and Geographies of Embodiment. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.

Something Something Something by Race, 2021

This poem is commentary on our dominant paradigm of epidemiological knowledge production on racial health inequities. The core animating concern here is structural racism—not just as a thing ‘out there’ to study in relation to health inequities, but also a thing ‘in here’ that shapes how we do what we do and who gets to do it—that is, epistemic and methodological norms, and matters of inclusion and representation that raise questions about procedural and distributive justice. Of particular emphasis, as indicated by the title and x/y axis, is the ‘colourblind’ racism embedded within the (mis)use of ‘race’ within racial health inequities research, and as unexamined in relation to who is producing knowledge about whom. The suggestion is that epidemiology’s dominant paradigm is structurally racist, racial-capitalist, settler-colonial and epistemically violent: with discourse of racial health inequities dominated by extractivist, reductionist, positivist work done disproportionately by White scholars making professional and economic..

LATENT//Missing: On Missing Values, Narrative Power, and Data Politics in Discourse of COVID-19

April is National Minority Health Month in the United States. The first week of April is National Public Health Week. This year, both occasions passed as the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded and, in the process, rendered remarkably clear the magnitude of the United States’ collective shortcomings in advancing population health equity—particularly as related to dominant narratives of health and data politics. Drawing from critical theory, I use essay to contextualize present COVID-19 discourse and poetry to situate this discourse within a broader historical arc of the United States’ racist, classist, and homophobic proclivities in times of public health crises. I use the combination of essay/poem as creative praxis to analyze and reflect on our present moment in relation to public health pasts and to raise questions about public health research, education, and data futures—offering a critical commentary on the intersections of infectious diseases, structural inequality (e.g., racism), data politics, and public health violence

Keynote Presentation: Dr. Ryan Petteway

Dr. Ryan J. Petteway is an assistant professor in the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health. His applied research integrates social epidemiology and CBPR/YPAR to examine place, “placemaking,” and health, making use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to democratize and enhance research/practice processes. He takes an intergenerational approach to his research, anchors his scholarship in the principles of CBPR/YPAR, and employs exclusively participatory methods—conceptual, procedural, and methodological characteristics of his work that reflect the value he places on equitable and decolonized community engagement

Particulates//tulips: (or, Estimating Respiratory Effects of Ambient Air Pollution and COVID-19 Using a Policing-Climate Adjusted Hazard Function)

Through poetry, I offer a creative, critical analysis of the intersections of COVID-19, structural racism, and racialized police violence-situating present COVID-19 discourse within a broader historical arc of respiratory distress within communities of color, all while centering Earth Day and climate change as both metaphor and corollary. In doing so, I enact poetry as praxis, reflecting critically on the racialized contexts and consequences of overlapping threats to our health, while simultaneously crafting counternarrative to public health\u27s ahistoric, apolitical, and racist proclivities in times of public health crises

Health Impact Assessment and City Council Policy: Identifying Opportunities to Address Local Social Determinants of Health & Place-Health Relationships, 10 Years Later

Background: Health Impact Assessment (HIA) can be used to assess any type of policy/program related to social determinants (SDH). However, local public health departments (LHDs) have been slow to adopt formal use of HIA in efforts to address local SDH, even with growing evidence linking SDH and place-health relationships. Ten years ago we completed a review of Baltimore City Council policies to advance this conversation within the LHD. Our goal here is to revisit this review and, again, outline a process by which LHDs can: a) monitor local policies in regard to SDH and b) identify opportunities for potential HIA use. Methods: We reviewed all policies introduced into Baltimore City Council in calendar years 2008 and 2009. We reviewed each policy to identify those with potential health impacts. We then categorized these policies as: a) “explicitly health-related” or b) “related to SDH.” We then tabulated the number and sub-types of these policies that were referred for LHD review. Results: We identified and reviewed 597 total policies. 89 policies (15%) were identified as “explicitly health-related,” 34 (38%) of which were referred for LHD review. 208 policies (35%) were identified as “related to SDH,” 13 (6%) of which were reviewed. Overall, 297 (50%) policies were identified as having potential health impacts, 47 (16%) of which were reviewed. Conclusion: This work represents a potentially replicable process to identify HIA opportunities, and potential launch point for health-in-all-policies efforts. In Baltimore, it facilitated dialogue with Baltimore City officials and led to the LHD’s first HIA grant

What You Should Know About RACISM-20 in the U.S.: A Fact Sheet in the Time of COVID-19

Drawing from social epidemiology literature on structural racism, and rooted in critical race theory and critical theory related to narrative power, this paper uses satire and humor as commentary on mainstream U.S. public health discourse related to the role of “race” (properly understood, racism) in shaping inequities observed via COVID-19. Taking the form of a “RACISM-20” fact sheet, this paper transposes structural racism and COVID-19. In doing so, it accentuates how individualist, ahistoric, and pathologizing “downstream” frames of health risks/solutions curtail productive dialogue and action to advance racial and health equity. In the spirit of “racial emancipatory humor”, this work represents a potential pedagogical tool to discuss and critique dominant frames of racial(ized) risks, “vulnerability”, and responsibility – both in the context of COVID-19 and within broader discourse of racial health inequities, including as related to racialized police violence. In this capacity, this “fact sheet” serves as an example health promotion product of critical resistance and counternarrative