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

Explores differences in beliefs of what constitutes reliable scientific evidence during public health emergencies, including COVID-19.

Eivind Engebretsen (Author), Mona Baker (Author)

9781316516607, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 September 2022

200 pages
24 x 16.5 x 1.1 cm, 0.34 kg

'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

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.

1. Evidence in Times of Crisis
2. Narrative Rationality and the Logic of Good Reasons
3. Whose Evidence? What Rationality? The Face Mask Controversy
4. Whose Lives? What Values? Herd Immunity, Lockdowns, and Social/Physical Distancing
5. The Rational World Paradigm, the Narrative Paradigm and the Politics of Pharmaceutical Interventions
6. Objectivist vs Praxial Knowledge: Towards a Model of Situated Epistemologies and Narrative Identification
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Medical sociology [MBS], Health systems & services [MBP], Epidemiology & medical statistics [MBNS], Public health & preventive medicine [MBN], Medical ethics & professional conduct [MBDC], Medical & healthcare law [LNTM]