HomeEnvironment And Health At The Intersection Of Inequalities

Environment And Health At The Intersection Of Inequalities

L’environnement et la sante au croisement des inégalités

البيئة والصحة والتفاوتات

Toward An Interdisciplinary Approach To The Production Of Risks And Justice

Vers une approche interdisciplinaire de la production des risques et de la justice

نحو مقاربة بينتخصصية لإنتاج المخاطر والعدالة

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Published on Tuesday, May 26, 2026

Abstract

This congress aims to examine the relationships between environment, health, and social inequalities through interdisciplinary approaches involving social sciences, public health, anthropology, and environmental policy. Discussions will focus on health risks, environmental inequalities, social justice, mental health, ecological transition, and digital challenges.

Announcement

Argument

“The physician who truly honors his profession is the one who properly takes into account the seasons of the year and the diseases they cause, the winds peculiar to each region, and the quality of the waters ; who observes the city and its surroundings—in short, all the causes capable of producing imbalance in the animal economy.” Hippocrates, On Airs, Waters, and Places

The issue of environment and health can no longer be approached as a purely technical matter limited to laboratory measurements and epidemiological indicators. It is now situated within a theoretical horizon that considers it a complex social construction at the intersection of economic, political, and cultural structures, where power relations and configurations of inequality materialize. From this perspective, environmental risks appear as socially constructed forms organized according to hierarchies of class, space, and gender, such that exposure to disease, the capacity to protect oneself from it, and the ability to mobilize against it remain dependent upon the positions occupied by actors within social fields, as well as upon the material and symbolic capital they possess (Bourdieu, 1986 ; Krieger, 2011). Such a reading leads to understanding environmental health as the product of historical trajectories in the social organization of resources and power, rather than as the simple reflection of isolated natural factors.

Within this framework, the work of Michael Marmot demonstrates that the social gradient in health produces structural disparities that exceed the effects of material environmental determinants alone, as inequalities in exposure and response capacity are embodied in what he terms the “social gradient” (Marmot, 2004). Likewise, Arthur Kleinman emphasizes that the experience of illness is constructed within contexts of meaning, identity, and memory, making the body a site where biological experience intersects with cultural and social structures (Kleinman, 1988). These two perspectives converge in reinserting illness into the network of social relations that produce and give meaning to it, thereby opening the way for a critical examination of the structural conditions that reproduce environmental and health risks.

From this standpoint, the central question unfolds along a dual perspective : on the one hand, the mechanisms through which structural inequalities are reproduced at the intersection of environment and health ; and on the other hand, the conditions that would allow scientific knowledge regarding environmental risks to be transformed into preventive public action that is both effective and equitable. Such transformation requires deconstructing the very mechanisms of knowledge production, including the ways risks are recognized and the limits of their politicization within the public sphere.

In this context, Ulrich Beck’s thesis of the “risk society” proposes a conception of risks as transnational and globalized. However, this approach presupposes conditions of public awareness and political mobilization that are not equally present in contexts marked by structural fragility, where risks tend to remain silent due to the weakness of symbolic and institutional resources capable of turning them into public issues (Beck, 1992). By contrast, Robert Bullard’s approach to environmental justice highlights that the distribution of environmental burdens follows precise patterns of social inequality, with risks accumulating in social and geographical margins and exposing the least empowered groups to pollution and degradation (Bullard, 2000).

This perspective makes it possible to move beyond simplistic approaches that view the “Global South” as a homogeneous entity, by highlighting subtle differentiations within local contexts themselves, whether inequalities between urban neighborhoods unevenly equipped with infrastructure and services, or between rural and urban spaces characterized by different modes of exposure to environmental risks. In this sense, environment and health appear as intertwined fields of inequality production, where relations of domination operate at multiple and stratified levels.

Moreover, such a framework requires adopting an interdisciplinary approach that goes beyond the mere juxtaposition of disciplines toward a critical interaction of forms of knowledge, questioning the theoretical and methodological assumptions specific to each field. The cognitive tensions between clinical medicine and sociology, between epidemiology and anthropology, or between public health and theories of environmental justice constitute highly productive intellectual moments in which the limits of each approach are tested against the complexity of the object under study. This interaction does not stem from contingent divergence but from an essential epistemological condition for producing knowledge capable of deconstructing the structural entanglement between environment and health.

From this perspective, the environment is understood as a social space of conflict and unequal distribution of resources and risks, while health is viewed as a condition constituted at the intersection of the biological, the social, and the political. This perspective leads to reorienting scientific research toward analyzing the structures that produce and reproduce illness, thereby paving the way for a sociology of health and environment attentive to power relations and capable of contributing to the development of more just and equitable preventive policies.

This theoretical framework gains analytical depth when anchored in empirical contexts arising from local dynamics. In the Moroccan case, Morocco can be considered an exemplary configuration of the entanglement between environment and health in concrete situations. The mining site of Imider reveals the links between mining exploitation, occupational diseases, and forms of health vulnerability related to working conditions and access to water resources. Likewise, the experience of Ouarzazate, at the heart of the energy transition, raises new questions regarding the effects of large-scale energy projects on community health and on the redistribution of risks and benefits. In agricultural areas, the effects of chronic exposure to pesticides on the health of rural women illustrate the interconnection between environmental and gender inequalities. Similarly, the consequences of the 2023 Al Haouz earthquake revive reflection on the links between environmental shock and mental health, from the perspective of rebuilding social ties and relationships to place. Mentioning these cases is not limited to empirical description ; rather, it grounds situated analyses that help understand the production of risks and inequalities in the Moroccan context.

I. Global Health and the Ecology of Health

Current planetary transformations-climate disruption, biodiversity collapse, accelerated urbanization, and the globalization of food chains-have progressively altered human living conditions and, with them, the determinants of health. Global health and the ecology of health now constitute two complementary analytical frameworks for understanding this reconfiguration. The former emphasizes the transnational interdependencies that shape the production, distribution, and access to healthcare, as well as the structural inequalities they generate. The latter, rooted in human ecology, connects individual and collective health to ecosystem dynamics : the quality of air, water, and soil, disruptions of biological cycles, and interspecies interactions. Together, these approaches reveal that health is not a purely biological state but the product of complex interactions among human bodies, societies, and natural and built environments.

The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases-from HIV/AIDS to SARS-CoV-2, including Ebola and drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis-strongly illustrate the relevance of this framework. These health events are embedded within ecological dynamics (deforestation, human-animal interactions), social dynamics (migration, urban density), and economic dynamics (North–South inequalities, underfunding of public health systems). Likewise, the rise of chronic non-communicable diseases—cancers, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and respiratory disorders—cannot be dissociated from the degradation of living environments, industrial modes of production, and the consumption patterns they generate. It is within this context that the environment/health relationship has emerged as a major scientific issue, particularly for societies in the Global South.

II. The Complexity of the Environment/Health Relationship

Although the link between the physical environment and disease is now firmly established, it would be reductive to adopt a simplistic deterministic view. Environmental factors do not operate mechanically ; they intertwine with social, economic, and cultural logics to produce differentiated effects according to groups and territories. The spread of malaria, tuberculosis, or cancers is not simply the product of the natural environment ; it is also shaped by social behaviors, perceptions of risk, inequalities in access to healthcare, and public policies that organize-or neglect-prevention.

This complexity lies in the multiplicity of scales involved : from the individual body to international policies, passing through households, neighborhoods, cities, and the state. It also lies in the plurality of biological, ecological, and social mechanisms linking environment and health. Understanding this issue therefore requires a resolutely interdisciplinary approach drawing simultaneously on biomedical sciences, environmental sciences, and the humanities and social sciences.

III. The Delay of the Social Sciences and Its Overcoming

The Pasteurian revolution, by centering the explanation of infectious diseases on pathogens and antibiotic treatment, relegated environmental factors in their socio-ecological dimensions to the background. It was only from the 1970s onward-under the combined pressure of environmental crises, the Stockholm Conference (1972), and the rise of ecological movements-that collective awareness began to emerge, leading the World Health Organization in 1994 to adopt a global strategy for health and environment and prompting Europe at the beginning of the twenty-first century to establish institutional structures.

Overall, the social sciences lagged behind in this movement despite pioneering contributions in human ecology, medical anthropology, and health geography. The 1992 Health-Environment Commission explicitly noted : “There is an urgent need for the social sciences to invest in research on health, development, and the environment.” This delay can partly be explained by the difficulty of claiming epistemological legitimacy over an object whose expertise is more commonly associated with experimental sciences. It raises the question of how the social sciences can develop their own concepts, methods, and paradigms to grasp the complex relationships between environment and health while remaining connected to other disciplines.

IV. Environmental Inequalities and Health Inequalities

The North–South asymmetry in the distribution of environmental and health risks is one of the most documented-and least resolved-realities of our time. Countries of the South too often serve as dumping grounds for industrial and nuclear waste, sites of overexploitation of natural resources (marine resources, minerals, groundwater), and testing grounds for productive standards that wealthy countries deem unacceptable on their own soil. Ulrich Beck already described this phenomenon as an unequally distributed “risk society” : populations least responsible for environmental disruptions bear the heaviest consequences in terms of respiratory diseases, pandemics, cancers, and allergies.

Rapid and unplanned urbanization further amplifies these inequalities. In major cities of the South-including Casablanca, Fez, and Marrakech in Morocco-the densification of substandard housing, insufficient sanitary infrastructure (drinking water, sanitation, waste collection), and the proximity of polluting artisanal activities constitute structural determinants of diseases such as tuberculosis, asthma, and certain cancers. Urban sedentary lifestyles, combined with the dietary transition toward ultra-processed products, also contribute to the rise of chronic non-communicable diseases.

In response to these dynamics, health policies remain too often oriented toward curative over-medicalization rather than prevention. This orientation is partly shaped by the interests of multinational pharmaceutical companies, whose research investments prioritize rare diseases with high commercial potential over illnesses carrying a heavy epidemiological burden for Southern populations. The marginalization of local knowledge and medicinal plants within institutional validation protocols also illustrates the difficulty of integrating alternative approaches into standardized healthcare systems.

V. Social Mobilizations and Governance of the Ecological Transition

Since the 1970s, transnational movements-Greenpeace, alter-globalization movements, organic food associations, and green political parties-have expanded the space of political debate by making environmental health an issue of public governance. These actors defend sometimes opposing visions : individual responsibility versus collective coercive measures, reform of capitalism versus degrowth. Their growing influence reflects increasing recognition that environmental crises cannot be reduced to technical problems ; they are also political problems that challenge development models and power relations among social groups.

Climate urgency thus generates a wide range of projects and actions—public and private, collective and individual—involving multiple actors whose interests may converge or diverge. Understanding who defines the ecological transition, who supports it, who opposes it, and under what conditions it gains or fails to gain public support constitutes both a scientific undertaking and a political imperative.

Conference Themes

Theme 1 – Environments, Territories, and Population Health

This theme examines the spatial and ecological determinants of health : housing conditions (sanitation, density, access to water and sanitation systems), the quality of natural environments (air, soil, water), agricultural and food practices, and the effects of climate change on disease prevalence. It focuses on territorial disparities in health between urban, peri-urban, and rural settings, and on how the configuration of living spaces produces or mitigates health inequalities. Contributions may draw on geographical, epidemiological, social, or anthropological approaches.

Theme 2 – Human Activities, Occupational Exposures, and Health Risks

This theme focuses on health risks linked to economic activities and lifestyles : exposure to chemicals in artisanal and industrial sectors, risks related to agricultural practices (pesticides, chemical inputs), the effects of sedentary lifestyles and dietary transition on chronic diseases, and the health impacts of mobility and migration. It also examines the mechanisms through which these risks are recognized—or denied—by workers, employers, and institutions, as well as the conditions of access to prevention and healthcare according to socio-professional categories.

Theme 3 – Perceptions, Social Representations, and Environmental Health Practices

This theme addresses the cultural and cognitive dimensions of the environment/health relationship : How do individuals and groups perceive environmental risks ? What are the social representations of environmentally related diseases ? How do beliefs, lay knowledge, and local knowledge interact—or come into tension—with biomedical discourses and prevention policies ? Contributions may notably analyze prevention programs (tuberculosis, cancer, HIV/AIDS, COVID-19, malaria) through the lens of the sociocultural contexts in which they are embedded, and the conditions of their effectiveness or failure.

Theme 4 – Governance, Public Policies, and Environmental Justice

This theme addresses the institutional and political dimensions of the environment/health relationship : comparative analysis of environmental and health policies, the role of international organizations (WHO, UNEP), North–South asymmetries in the production and management of risks, social mobilizations and environmental movements, and governance of the ecological transition. It also examines obstacles to implementing effective and equitable prevention policies—particularly pressure from industrial and pharmaceutical interests—and the conditions necessary for the emergence of environmental and health justice.

Theme 5 – Digitalization and Environmental Health

Digital transformations, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, have profoundly reconfigured the ways knowledge related to environmental risks is produced and managed. Tools such as artificial intelligence and geographic information systems have become central in epidemic surveillance, monitoring disease spread, and constructing dynamic maps of vulnerability. The integration of this dimension is not merely a technical modernization of instruments but opens an epistemological inquiry into new forms of knowledge, their limits, and their links with power and decision-making in health matters. Environmental health is now also produced within digital infrastructures, which calls for a critical and interdisciplinary approach attentive to the connections between data, policies, and inequalities in access to technology.

Theme 6 – Environment and Mental Health

The boundaries of environmental health are now expanding to include the profound psychological effects of climate transformations and natural disasters. Phenomena such as “eco-anxiety” are emerging as expressions of a troubled relationship between human beings and their environment, particularly among younger generations. Field studies also show that environmental shocks—floods, droughts, earthquakes—leave lasting psychological traces that reshape feelings of security and belonging to place. Integrating this dimension broadens the understanding of health beyond its physiological dimension toward existential and social horizons, making environmental mental health a central entry point for analyzing collective vulnerabilities and rebuilding capacities for adaptation and resilience in changing contexts.

Submission guidelines

Calendar of the congress

  • 15/07/2026 : Last deadline for the receipt of communication abstracts (500 words)
  • 05/10/2027 : Response from the Scientific Committee.
  • 10/02/2027 : full text (6,000 to 8,000 words)
  • April 22–23, 2027 : congress

Application guidelines

Supervisory Committee

Responsible for the congress

Congress coordinators

Scientific committee

  • Mohammed MOUBTASSIME, FLDM, USMBA de Fès.
  • Mohammed ABABOU, LSP, FLDM, USMBA de Fès.
  • Saadia RADI Anthropologue.
  • Jean-Noël FERRIE, CNRS-Sciences Po Bordeaux
  • Abderrahman ELMALIKI, LSP, FLDM, USMBA de Fès.
  • Salah-Eddine LAARINY, LSP, FLDM, USMBA de Fès.
  • Bicilia Dabouz, Observatoire Homme-Milieux, (CNRS), Sénégal.
  • Marc-Eric Gruénais, Université de Bordeaux.
  • Khadija ZAHI, FLSH, Université El Kadi Ayad, Marrakech.
  • Yolande benarrosh, Université d’Aix-Marseille.
  • Ricciardi Ferruccio, CNRS, Paris.
  • Abdelmalek Bouzkraoui, LSP, FLDM, USMBA de Fès.
  • Benaissa Zarbouch, LSP, FLDM, USMBA de Fès.
  • Jamila Mourabit, usmba des Fès 
  • Younes El khadiri, Université El Kadi Ayad, Marrakech.
  • Wadie boudribila, Université El Kadi Ayad, Marrakech.

Organizing committee

  • Mohammed ABABOU, LSP, FLDM, USMBA of Fez.
  • Salah-Eddine LAARINY, LSP, FLDM, USMBA of Fez.
  • Abdelmalek BOUZAKRAOUI, LSP, FLDM, USMBA of Fez.

 Partners 

  • Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah University, Fez
  • National Center for Scientific and Technical Research, rabat
  • Human-Environment Observatory affiliated with the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), in Senegal.
  • Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies
  • Paul Pascon Center for Sociological Research, Benguerir
  • UMR 5115 CNRS “Les Afriques dans le monde,” Bordeaux
  • Department of Sociology, FLDM Faculty, Dhar El Mehraz, Fez
  • Interdisciplinary Laboratory of Economic Sociology, National Center for Scientific Research (LES–CNRS and CNAM), France

Places

  • Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences – Dhar El Mehraz, Fez, Morocco
    Fes, Kingdom of Morocco (30000)

Event attendance modalities

Full on-site event


Date(s)

  • Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Keywords

  • environment, health, social inequalities, environmental justice, health risks, eco-epidemiology, interdisciplinary approach, mental health, ecological transition, governance, digitalization

Contact(s)

  • Salah Eddine LAARINY
    courriel : salaheddine [dot] laariny [at] usmba [dot] ac [dot] ma

Information source

  • Salah Eddine LAARINY
    courriel : salaheddine [dot] laariny [at] usmba [dot] ac [dot] ma

License

CC0-1.0 This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.

To cite this announcement

« Environment And Health At The Intersection Of Inequalities », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/169sc

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