Morality, responsibility and risk: the importance of alternative perspectives in vaccination research

The four papers presented in this special section together provide a striking example of the importance of eliciting people's understandings and meanings of vaccinations, from parents and children to health and medical professionals.

This commentary reflects on the findings of the papers in this special section and considers them within a broader sociocultural view on vaccination research.

The four papers in the special section were integrated with previous research and scholarship on public health and vaccinations.

The studies demonstrate how both uptake of vaccinations and their meanings vary by cultural context, most notably across Eastern and Western Europe, and the fundamental role that political, economic and healthcare systems play. Nevertheless, there are many similarities across seemingly diverse contexts. Three specific tensions are apparent across the findings (and within other vaccination research). These tensions revolve around (1) responsible citizen versus responsible individual, (2) scientific knowledge versus lay understandings and (3) uncertainty and risk versus certainty and trust.

Threaded through these tensions are discourses around citizenship, trust, morality, gender and power that are important to consider in research on vaccinations.