Causal Inference and the People's Health [Hardcover]

InCausality and the People's Health, Sharon Schwartz and Seth J. Prins offer both a synthesis of the dominant school of thought around social causality and propose a new approach that keeps causal concepts as an organizing principle without marginalizing social phenomena. This book explores how our definitions of causes in epidemiology influence how we go about finding them and estimating their effects. It examines debates about these issues, critiques inadequate attempts at their resolution, and offers a path forward--one that expands causal inference, and the purview of epidemiology, to include social forces as causes of the people's health.An essential introduction to concepts of causation and causal inference that explores how our definitions of causes in epidemiology influence how we go about finding them and estimating their effects.A key goal of epidemiologic research is to uncover the causes of diseases and other health-related outcomes. But exactly what we mean by a cause and what types of phenomena qualify as causes, differ across historical periods, and is a contentious topic. The causal status of social phenomena has been, and continues to be, particularly precarious.InCausal Inference and the People's Health, Sharon Schwartz and Seth J. Prins offer both a synthesis of the dominant school of thought around causality and propose an approach that keeps causal concepts as an organizing principle without marginalizing social phenomena. The authors examine the implications of the Causal Revolution, --introduced in epidemiology as the Potential Outcomes framework--which initiated a paradigm shift across the social sciences. As the authors show, this shift influences the questions we ask, the methods we use, the narratives we construct about our study results, and thus the knowledge we use to fight for the people's health. The guiding principle of the Causal Revolution is simple but profound: researchers should specify if tlӈ