The fall of the wall and gender as “natural” experiments

The so called “natural” experiments are the base of observational studies in epidemiology. They are conceptualised as cohort studies designed by nature. Since the times of John Snow comparing the cholera rates in those served by Southwark and Vauxhall water company with the ones of Lambeth many epidemiologists have used this approach in a very efficient and fruitful way. Although the way we name it as “natural” resembles more experimental and biological sciences than social ones, there is no reason why social epidemiologists cannot apply the same methodological tools to social and political changes. Not just biological nature design cohort studies, …