Ontology of work and methodologies situated in public health: Between epistemes, practices, and territories

Abstract

This essay proposes a theoretical-methodological reflection that repositions interdisciplinarity in the field of public health as a ‘working ontology’, conceived not only as a strategy for integrating knowledge, but as a constitutive foundation of scientific practice and social intervention. Methodologically, it is a theoretical-critical essay based on a narrative literature review, with the intentional selection of central authors from the fields of critical epidemiology, complexity, and the epistemology of Latin American public health. Starting from a critical analysis of the epistemological bases of the field, it engages with these contributions that highlight the need for methodological resources capable of recursively articulating epistemologies, practices, and territories. Building on this foundation, the formulation of methodological arrangements integrating qualitative, quantitative, and participatory dimensions is discussed, supported by expanded rigor criteria, including internal, external, ecological, and political validity. It is argued that this perspective broadens the capacity of public health to grasp the complexity of phenomena without reducing them to impoverishing simplifications, guaranteeing contextual relevance and transformative potential. Finally, it is emphasized that methodological choice in the field is inseparably a scientific and political act, calling upon researchers to transform interdisciplinarity into concrete and emancipatory practice.