# Embodied Ecologies. A collaborative inquiry into how people sense, know and act to reduce chemical exposures in everyday urban life

Anita Hardon

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Anita Hardon. Embodied Ecologies. A collaborative inquiry into how people sense, know and act to reduce chemical exposures in everyday urban life. Séminaire permanent de l'Institut ExposUM Axe "Interfaces Sciences-Société", Institut ExposUM, Jun 2024, Montpellier, France. hal-04634755

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Submitted on 4 Jul 2024

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# Embodied ecologies: Residents' sensitive approaches to knowing and reducing their exposure to chemicals in everyday urban life

## Écologies incarnées: Les approches sensibles des habitants pour connaître et réduire leur exposition aux produits chimiques dans la vie urbaine de tous les jours

### Anita Hardon

**Événements organisés dans le cadre de l'Institut ExposUM, avec l'appui des dispositifs de la MSH-SUD**

Permanent seminar of the Institut ExposUM "Interfaces Sciences-Society" Axis

Dates: June 26, 2024

Timetable: 4.30 pm to 6 pm

Saint Charles II - Salle des Actes - 71 rue du Professeur Henri Serre, 34090 Montpellier, France

The seminar presents the transdisciplinary "Embodied Ecologies" project, based on citizen science, which enables people affected by chemical pollution to collect data for scientists and define research priorities. The project aims to study cumulative toxicities by combining ethnography and sensory mapping, and to promote practices to reduce the damage caused by these chemicals.

Speaker Anita Hardon will present key insights into how people feel, understand and act to reduce their exposure to hazardous chemicals in urban environments in the Philippines, France and the Netherlands. She will also discuss the challenges of measuring exposures and propose solutions to make the results usable.

Chemicals enter and pass through our bodies via multiple pathways: the air we breathe, the water we drink, the work we do, the soil on which we live, play and grow our food, the food we eat, the building materials in our homes and the (personal) hygiene products we use, often without knowing what chemicals they contain. These toxic chemicals interact with each other, with organic matter in our environment and with our body's own endogenous molecules. They are metabolized by our organs and excreted by our bodies in the form of chemical metabolites, which find their way into our waterways and affect the quality of our drinking water.

This presentation will introduce the transdisciplinary "Embodied Ecologies" project, based on citizen science, where people affected by chemical pollution not only gather data for scientists but also help define research priorities. This project aims to investigate the cumulative toxicities that can be experienced by combining ethnography and sensory mapping. It also aims to promote practices for reducing the harm to people associated with these chemicals.

Anita Hardon will evoke key insights into how people feel, understand and act to reduce their exposures to potentially hazardous chemicals in urban environments in the Philippines, France and the Netherlands.

She will go on to reflect on the challenges of measuring exposures using different techniques and suggest ways of making the results usable.
**Speaker:** Dr. Anita Hardon was trained as a medical biologist and anthropologist and has been engaged in transdisciplinary studies on synthetic chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. Her research has generated important ethnographic insights into the use of these technologies in diverse social-cultural settings, and their effects in everyday life. Anita Hardon is currently chair of the Knowledge, Technology, and Innovation group of Wageningen University and Research, and Professor of Anthropology of Care and Health at the University of Amsterdam. She has published widely disseminated articles, special issues, and books (Chemical Youth (an open access book), 2021 Palgrave Macmillan; Social Lives of Medicines, 2002 Cambridge University Press).