Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics: Scientific vs Narrative Rationality and Medical Knowledge Practices

Eivind Engebretsen; Mona Baker

doi:10.1017/9781009030687

The COVID-19 crisis has transformed the highly specialized issue of what constitutes reliable medical evidence into a topic of public concern and debate. This book interrogates the assumption that evidence means the same thing to different constituencies and in different contexts. Rather than treating various practices of knowledge as rational or irrational in purely scientific terms, it explains the controversies surrounding COVID-19 by drawing on a theoretical framework that recognizes different types of rationality, and hence plural conceptualizations of evidence. Debates within and beyond the medical establishment on the efficacy of measures such as mandatory face masks are examined in detail, as are various degrees of hesitancy towards vaccines. The authors demonstrate that it is ultimately through narratives that knowledge about medical and other phenomena is communicated to others, enters the public space, and provokes discussion and disagreements. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

‘Deploying a nuanced analytical framework to tackle the social complexity of evidentiary truth, Engebretsen and Baker bring sociological order and meaning to the apparent incoherencies of collective and individual action in times of crisis. An exemplary illustration of how social science can confidently illuminate the social dimensions of truth-making without undermining its own epistemic coherence.’

Inanna Hamati-Ataya - University of Cambridge

‘In this readable, incisive analysis of recent history, Engebretsen and Baker critically revisit, expand and update Fisher’s narrative paradigm for the 21st century. Evident throughout is the urgent relevance of stories not only for how we make sense of the world but for how we must imaginatively configure new and hopeful stories for effective, transformative politics.’

Sue-Ann Harding - Queen’s University Belfast

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Contents

Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics
pp i-ii
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Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics - Title page
pp iii-iii
Scientific vs Narrative Rationality and Medical Knowledge Practices
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Copyright page
pp iv-iv
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Contents
pp v-vi
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Tables and Figures
pp vii-vii
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Acknowledgements
pp viii-viii
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Chapter 1 - Evidence in Times of Crisis
pp 1-7
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Chapter 2 - Narrative Rationality and the Logic of Good Reasons
pp 8-27
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Chapter 3 - Whose Evidence? What Rationality? The Face Mask Controversy
pp 28-44
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Chapter 4 - Whose Lives? What Values? Herd Immunity, Lockdowns and Social/Physical Distancing
pp 45-60
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Chapter 5 - The Rational World Paradigm, the Narrative Paradigm and the Politics of Pharmaceutical Interventions
pp 61-80
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Chapter 6 - Objectivist vs Praxial Knowledge: Towards a Model of Situated Epistemologies and Narrative Identification
pp 81-91
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References
pp 92-102
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Index
pp 103-108
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Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics

Scientific vs Narrative Rationality and Medical Knowledge Practices

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Contents

Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics
pp i-ii

Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics - Title page
pp iii-iii

Copyright page
pp iv-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

Tables and Figures
pp vii-vii

Acknowledgements
pp viii-viii

Chapter 1 - Evidence in Times of Crisis
pp 1-7

Chapter 2 - Narrative Rationality and the Logic of Good Reasons
pp 8-27

Chapter 3 - Whose Evidence? What Rationality? The Face Mask Controversy
pp 28-44

Chapter 4 - Whose Lives? What Values? Herd Immunity, Lockdowns and Social/Physical Distancing
pp 45-60

Chapter 5 - The Rational World Paradigm, the Narrative Paradigm and the Politics of Pharmaceutical Interventions
pp 61-80

Chapter 6 - Objectivist vs Praxial Knowledge: Towards a Model of Situated Epistemologies and Narrative Identification
pp 81-91

References
pp 92-102

Index
pp 103-108

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Rethinking Evidence in the Time of Pandemics

Scientific vs Narrative Rationality and Medical Knowledge Practices

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