Social sciences in health: perspectives and challenges for collective health

Abstract

From the institutionalization of collective health and the movements for redemocratization and Sanitary Reform to the present day, important changes have occurred in Brazilian society and in the world. In the last decades, the social sciences have been seeking to track these transformations and reflect on their impacts. In the Brazilian Collective Health field, the so-called ‘social and human health sciences’ reflect this dynamic, introducing new objects of study and approaches, as well as assimilating innovations from social theory. This essay proposes a rereading of the trajectory of the ‘social sciences in health’ in Brazil and the changes in its production since the pioneer studies of the field to the present day, along the process of the institutionalization process of collective health as a knowledge area, seeking to identify challenges and perspectives for the development of the area, considering the transformations that affect health in contemporary societies. Acknowledging the contribution of the social sciences in health to the understanding of health-disease processes and health policies, we argue that recent social transformations require a renewed intellectual investment to address the new socio-political dynamics and social production of risks, as well as bringing more appropriate inputs to governmental responses in health sector