Department of Social Sciences, Northern Research Institute (NORUT), Tromsø, Norway.
Glob Health Action. 2011;4:7913. doi: 10.3402/gha.v4i0.7913. Epub 2011 Sep 22.
Climate change and environmental pollution have become pressing concerns for the peoples in the Arctic region. Some researchers link climate change, transformations of living conditions and human health. A number of studies have also provided data on differentiating effects of climate change on women's and men's well-being and health.
To show how the issues of climate and environment change, human health and gender are addressed in current research in the Arctic. The main purpose of this article is not to give a full review but to draw attention to the gaps in knowledge and challenges in the Arctic research trends on climate change, human health and gender.
A broad literature search was undertaken using a variety of sources from natural, medical, social science and humanities. The focus was on the keywords.
Despite the evidence provided by many researchers on differentiating effects of climate change on well-being and health of women and men, gender perspective remains of marginal interest in climate change, environmental and health studies. At the same time, social sciences and humanities, and gender studies in particular, show little interest towards climate change impacts on human health in the Arctic. As a result, we still observe the division of labour between disciplines, the disciplinary-bound pictures of human development in the Arctic and terminology confusion.
Efforts to bring in a gender perspective in the Arctic research will be successful only when different disciplines would work together. Multidisciplinary research is a way to challenge academic/disciplinary homogeneity and their boundaries, to take advantage of the diversity of approaches and methods in production of new integrated knowledge. Cooperation and dialogue across disciplines will help to develop adequate indicators for monitoring human health and elaborating efficient policies and strategies to the benefit of both women and men in the Arctic.
气候变化和环境污染已成为北极地区人民关注的紧迫问题。一些研究人员将气候变化、生活条件的转变和人类健康联系起来。一些研究还提供了关于气候变化对妇女和男子福祉和健康的差异化影响的数据。
展示当前北极地区的研究如何解决气候和环境变化、人类健康和性别问题。本文的主要目的不是进行全面综述,而是要引起人们对北极地区气候变化、人类健康和性别研究趋势中知识差距和挑战的关注。
使用各种自然科学、医学、社会科学和人文学科的来源进行了广泛的文献检索。重点是关键词。
尽管许多研究人员提供了气候变化对妇女和男子福祉和健康的差异化影响的证据,但性别视角在气候变化、环境和健康研究中仍然处于边缘地位。与此同时,社会科学和人文学科,特别是性别研究,对北极地区气候变化对人类健康的影响几乎没有兴趣。因此,我们仍然观察到学科之间的分工、北极地区人类发展的学科界限图景和术语混淆。
只有当不同学科共同努力时,将性别视角纳入北极研究才会取得成功。多学科研究是挑战学术/学科同质性及其界限的一种方式,利用方法和方法的多样性来产生新的综合知识。跨学科的合作和对话将有助于制定监测人类健康的适当指标,并制定有利于北极地区妇女和男子的有效政策和战略。