From Neighborhoods to Molecules: The Selective Appropriation of Sociology in Social Epigenetics

Social epigenetics is presented as a promising interdisciplinary avenue between the natural and social sciences to explore the links between neighborhood environments, epigenetic modifications and health outcomes. Sociological concepts and methods are mobilized, sometimes through direct collaboration between epidemiologists and sociologists, to grasp the embodiment of social inequalities. Drawing on an in-depth qualitative analysis of three epidemiological cohort studies in the United States, we offer a processual approach to the use of Chicago-style ecological research on disorganization in social epigenetic studies. We argue that a selective appropriation of sociological research operates at two different levels of study design: that of the overall cohort study in which social epigenetics research is conducted and data are obtained, and that of the social epigenetics studies. This selective appropriation represents one of the most successful attempts in social epigenetics to complexify concepts and methods for analyzing health outcomes as a product of social situations. We show that for the epidemiologists and sociologists working in this interdisciplinary space, the move to greater complexity means observing the social organization of neighborhoods from a rather narrow window of observation, but one that presumably allows them to produce robust statistical evidence for the biological embodiment of social conditions.